Facts about Dingo
Dingoes have been observed hunting insects, rats, and lizards in rural areas of Thailand and Sulawesi.
In Australia, dingoes compete for the same food supply as introduced feral cats and red foxes, and also prey upon them (as well as on feral pigs).
Packs of dingoes can number 3 to 12 individuals in areas with little human disturbance, with distinct male and female dominance hierarchies determined through aggression.
Dingoes in southern Australia tend to be smaller than dingoes occurring in northern and north-western Australia.
Considering that thylacines managed to survive in the dingo-devoid island of Tasmania until the 1930s, some put this forward as further indirect evidence for dingo responsibility for the thylacine's disappearance (Ingleby 2003).
A dingo selected for hunting that misbehaves is either driven off or killed (Lindsay 2000).
Dingoes have features in common with both wolves and modern dogs and are regarded as more or less unchanged descendants of an early ancestor of modern dogs.
Some Australian Aborigines will routinely capture dingo pups from their dens in the winter months and keep them.
Three days later, two backpackers were attacked in the same area, leading to the government authorizing a cull, and the establishment of a A$1,500 fine to anyone found feeding dingoes (Hill 2001).
Over 170 different animal species have been recorded in Australia as part of the dingo's diet, ranging from insects to water buffalo.
Compared to similarly sized domestic dogs, dingoes tend to have longer muzzles, larger carnassials, longer canine teeth, and a flatter skull with larger nuchal lines (Corbett 2005).
A study at James Cook University has concluded that the reintroduction of dingoes would help control the populations of these pests, lessening the pressure on native biodiversity (Millen 2006).
Dingoes in Australia will sometimes prey on livestock in times of seasonal scarcity (Corbett 2005).
The dingo is largely indistinguishable on morphological characteristics from the closely related domestic dog.
Tribes living in Northern Australia track free ranging dingoes in order to find prey.
The dingo has somewhat long legs, a bushy tail, short fur, and erect, pointed ears.
Captain William Dampier, who wrote of the wild dog in 1699, was the first European to officially note the dingo (DBI 2008).
The gestation period of the dingo lasts 61 to 69 days, with litters usually being composed of 5 puppies.
European settlers did not discover dingoes until the seventeenth century, and originally dismissed them as feral dogs (Corbett 2005).
The dingo is a primarily diurnal predator, while it is thought the thylacine hunted mostly at night.
In Asia, dingoes live in closer proximity to humans, and will readily feed on rice, fruit, and human refuse.
Some people claim that the Australian kelpie has some dingo blood; as it was illegal to keep dingoes as pets, some dingo owners registered their animals as kelpies or kelpie crosses.
Puppies are usually born from May to July, though dingoes living in tropical habitats can reproduce at any time of the year.
All in all, little is known about the long-term effects of crossbreeding and crossbreeds cannot always be distinguished from pure dingoes.
Some have maintained that their reintroduction of the dingoes to some areas of Australia could help in controlling introduced feral cats and red foxes.
In 1828, Edmund Lockyer noted that the aboriginals he encountered treated dingo pups with greater affection than their own children, with some women even breastfeeding them.
The chromosome number of the dingo is 2n=78 (Corbett 2005), as with the domestic dog.
Crossbreeding with pet and feral domestic dogs is currently thought to be the dingo's greatest threat for survival.
Male dingoes are fertile throughout the year, whereas females are only receptive during their annual estrus cycle.
Up to 80 percent of the wild dogs along Australia’s eastern seaboard are thought to be dog-dingo crossbreeds.
Dingoes may be used for hunting purposes by Aboriginals inhabiting heavily forested regions.
Dingoes will usually hunt alone when targeting small prey such as rabbits and will hunt in groups for large prey like kangaroos (Corbett 2005).
The author of the study, Professor Chris Johnson, notes his first-hand observations of native rufous bettongs being able to thrive when dingoes are present.
Captive dingoes typically have a pro-estrus and estrus period lasting 10–12 days, while for wild specimens it can be as long as 2 months (Corbett 2005).
The dingo once was thought to be descended from the Iranian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) (Jones et al.
Among notable behavior differences from the domestic dog is that the dingo breeds only once a year and it seldom barks, but rather howls.
Gould wrote that tame dingoes could be distinguished from free ranging specimens by their more emaciated appearance.
Once the dingoes immobilize an animal, the tribesmen appropriate the carcass and leave the scraps to the dingoes.
Dingoes do not bark as much as domestic dogs, which can be very loud, and dingoes howl more frequently.
Dingoes are mostly seen alone, though the majority belong to packs that rendezvous once every few days to socialize or mate (Corbett 2005).
Some authorities, however, doubt the impact of the dingo on the extinction of the thylacine, as the two species would not have been in direct competition with one another.
In Australia, as a result of interbreeding with dogs introduced by European settlers, the purebred dingo gene pool is in decline.
The dingo cannot be easily or reliably distinguished based on external appearance (Rudolph 2003).
Dingoes apparently were transported from mainland Asia, through South-East Asia to Australia and other parts of the Pacific region by Asian seafarers throughout their voyages over the last 5000 years.
Dingoes lack the same degree of tooth crowding and jaw-shortening that distinguishes other dog breeds from wolves (DBI 2008).
All other recorded attacks occurred on Fraser Island, where dingoes have become habituated to humans feeding them.
The size of a dingo's territory has little to do with pack size, and more to do with terrain and prey resources.
The rate of decline of ground-living mammals decreases from 50 percent or more, to just 10 percent or less, where dingoes are present to control fox and cat populations.
Between 1996 and 2001, 224 incidences of dingoes biting people were recorded (Linnell 2002), and on the 5th of May, 2001, two children were attacked near the remote Waddy Point campsite.
Currently, dingo puppies are only available within Australia and it is illegal to export them, though this may change through the urgings of breed fanciers.
Dingoes will sometimes disperse from the natal home ranges, with one specimen having been recorded to travel 250 kilometers (155 miles).
The arrival of dingoes is thought by some to have been a major factor in the extinction of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) in mainland Australia.
Compared to similarly sized domestic dogs, dingoes tend to have longer muzzles, larger carnassials, longer canine teeth, and a flatter skull with larger nuchal lines (Corbett 2005).
The thylacine was also much less versatile in diet, unlike the omnivorous dingo (Macey 2007).
The name dingo comes from the language of the Eora Aboriginal people, who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.
Purebred dingoes have white hair on their feet and tail tip and lack dewclaws on their hindlegs (DBI 2008).
Dingoes apparently were transported from mainland Asia, through South-East Asia to Australia and other parts of the Pacific region by Asian seafarers throughout their voyages over the last 5000 years.