Dingo

Breed at a glance

intro

<ref name=jackson2015/>"},"image":{"wt":"Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) Kakadu 2.jpg"},"image_caption":{"wt":"[[Kakadu National Park]] [[Northern Territory|NT]]"},"genus":{"wt":"Canis"},"species":{"wt":"familiaris "},"subspecies":{"wt":""},"authority":{"wt":"Linnaeus, 1758"},"synonyms":{"wt":"*''Canis familiaris dingo'' Meyer, 1793<ref name=blumenbach1799/>\n*''[[Canis lupus dingo]]'' Meyer, 1793\n*''Canis dingo'' Meyer, 1793"},"range_map":{"wt":"Dingo-Distribution-Fleming.png"},"range_map_caption":{"wt":"Distribution of the dingo: dingoes south of the [[dingo fence]] (black line) may have a higher prevalence of hybridisation."}},"i":2}}]}' id="mwBw"> The dingo is a lineage of dog [ 4 ] [ 5 ] found in Australia . It is a medium-sized canine that possesses a lean, hardy body adapted for speed, agility, and stamina. Its three main coat colourations are light ginger or tan, black and tan, or creamy white. The skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to the body. Its taxonomic classification is debated: it is variously considered a form of domestic dog ( Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris ) not warranting recognition as a subspecies , or a subspecies of dog ( Canis familiaris dingo ) or wolf ( Canis lupus dingo ), or a full species in its own right ( Canis dingo ). The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog : their lineage split early from the lineage that led to today's domestic dogs, and can be traced back through Maritime Southeast Asia to Asia. The oldest remains of dingoes discovered in Australia are around 3,500 years old. A dingo pack usually consists of a mated pair, their offspring from the current year, and sometimes offspring from the previous year.

Barking

Compared to most domestic dogs, the bark of a dingo is short and monosyllabic, and is rarely used. Barking was observed to make up only 5% of vocalisations . Dog barking has always been distinct from wolf barking. [ 78 ] Australian dingoes bark mainly in swooshing noises or in a mixture of atonal and tonal sounds. In addition, barking is almost exclusively used for giving warnings. Warn-barking in a homotypical sequence and a kind of "warn-howling" in a heterotypical sequence have also been observed. The bark-howling starts with several barks and then fades into a rising and ebbing howl and is probably (similar to coughing) used to warn the puppies and members of the pack . Additionally, dingoes emit a sort of "wailing" sound, which they mostly use when approaching a watering hole , probably to warn already present dingoes. [ 79 ] According to the present state of knowledge, getting Australian dingoes to bark more frequently by putting them in contact with other domestic dogs is not possible. However, German zoologist Alfred Brehm reported a dingo that learned the more "typical" form of barking and how to use it, while its brother did not. [ 80 ] Whether dingoes bark or bark-howl less frequently in general is not certain. [ 77 ]

History

The earliest-known dingo remains, found in Western Australia, date to 3,450 years ago. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 27 ] Based on a comparison of modern dingoes with these early remains, dingo morphology has not changed over those thousands of years. This suggests that no artificial selection has been applied over that period and that the dingo represents an early form of dog. [ 27 ] They have lived, bred, and undergone natural selection in the wild, isolated from other dogs until the arrival of European settlers, resulting in a unique breed. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] In 2020 a study using mitochondrial DNA from ancient dog remains from the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins of southern China showed that most of these ancient dogs belong to the haplogroup A1b lineage; this lineage is also found at high frequencies among Australian dingoes and the pre-colonial dogs of the Pacific but is found at low frequencies in China today. [ 30 ] The dogs belonging to this haplogroup were once widely distributed in southern China, then dispersed through Southeast Asia into New Guinea and Oceania, but were replaced in China by dogs of other lineages 2,000 years before present (YBP) . [ 30 ] The oldest reliable date for dog remains found in mainland Southeast Asia is from Vietnam at 4,000 YBP, and in Island Southeast Asia from Timor-Leste at 3,000 YBP. [ 31 ] The earliest dingo remains in the Torres Strait date to 2,100 YBP. In New Guinea the earliest dog remains date to 2,500–2,300 YBP from Caution Bay near Port Moresby , but no ancient New Guinea singing dog remains have been found. [ 1 ] The earliest dingo skeletal remains in Australia are estimated at 3,450 YBP from the Madura Caves on the Nullarbor Plain , south-eastern Western Australia ; [ 1 ] [ 2 ] 3,320 YBP from Woombah Midden near Woombah, New South Wales ; and 3,170 YBP from Fromme's Landing on the Murray River near Mannum , South Australia. [ 2 ] Dingo bone fragments were found in a rock shelter located at Mount Burr, South Australia , in a layer that was originally dated 7,000–8,500 YBP. [ 32 ] Excavations later indicated that the levels had been disturbed, and the dingo remains "probably moved to an earlier level." [ 21 ] [ 33 ] The dating of these early Australian dingo fossils led to the widely held belief that dingoes first arrived in Australia 4,000 YBP and then took 500 years to disperse around the continent. [ 27 ] However, the timing of these skeletal remains was based on the dating of the sediments in which they were discovered, and not the specimens themselves. [ 31 ] In 2018, the oldest skeletal bones from the Madura Caves were directly carbon dated between 3,348 and 3,081 YBP, providing the earliest evidence of the dingo and that dingoes may have arrived later than had previously been proposed. The next-most reliable timing is based on desiccated flesh dated 2,200 YBP from Thylacine Hole, 110 km west of Eucla on the Nullarbor Plain, southeastern Western Australia. When dingoes first arrived, they would have bee

Howling

Dingoes have three basic forms of howling (moans, bark-howls, and snuffs) with at least 10 variations. Usually, three kinds of howls are distinguished: long and persistent, rising and ebbing, and short and abrupt. Observations have shown that each kind of howling has several variations, though their purpose is unknown. The frequency of howling varies with the season and time of day, and is also influenced by breeding , migration , lactation , social stability, and dispersal behaviour. Howling can be more frequent in times of food shortage, because the dogs become more widely distributed within their home range . [ 79 ] Additionally, howling seems to have a group function, and is sometimes an expression of joy (for example, greeting-howls). Overall, howling was observed less frequently in dingoes than among grey wolves. It may happen that one dog will begin to howl, and several or all other dogs will howl back and bark from time to time. In the wilderness , dingoes howl over long distances to attract other members of the pack, to find other dogs, or to keep intruders at bay. Dingoes howl in chorus with significant pitches, and with increasing number of pack members, the variability of pitches also increases. [ 81 ] Therefore, dingoes are suspected to be able to measure the size of a pack without visual contact. [ 82 ] Moreover, their highly variable chorus howls have been proposed to generate a confounding effect in the receivers by making pack size appear larger. [ 83 ]

Cultural

Cultural opinions about the dingo are often based on its perceived "cunning", and the idea that it is an intermediate between civilisation and wildness. [ 116 ] Some of the early European settlers looked on dingoes as domestic dogs, while others thought they were more like wolves. Over the years, dingoes began to attack sheep, and their relationship to the Europeans changed very quickly; they were regarded as devious and cowardly, since they did not fight bravely in the eyes of the Europeans, and vanished into the bush. [ 117 ] Additionally, they were seen as promiscuous or as devils with a venomous bite or saliva, so they could be killed unreservedly. Over the years, dingo trappers gained some prestige for their work, especially when they managed to kill hard-to-catch dingoes. Dingoes were associated with thieves, vagabonds , bushrangers , and parliamentary opponents. From the 1960s, politicians began calling their opponents "dingo", meaning they were cowardly and treacherous, and it has become a popular form of attack since then. [ 118 ] Today, the word "dingo" still stands for "coward" and "cheat", with verb and adjective forms used, as well. [ 116 ] The image of the dingo has ranged among some groups from the instructive [ 119 ] to the demonic. [ 120 ] Ceremonies (like a keen at the Cape York Peninsula in the form of howling) [ 97 ] and dreamtime stories are connected to the dingo, which were passed down through the generations. The dingo plays a prominent role in the Dreamtime stories of indigenous Australians, [ 121 ] but it is rarely depicted in their cave paintings when compared with the extinct thylacine. [ 122 ] [ 27 ] One of the tribal elders of the people of the Yarralin, Northern Territory region tells that the Dreamtime dingo is the ancestor of both dingoes and humans. The dingoes "are what we would be if we were not what we are." [ 121 ] Similar to how Europeans acquired dingoes, the Aboriginal people of Australia acquired dogs from the immigrants very quickly. This process was so fast that Francis Barrallier (surveyor on early expeditions around the colony at Port Jackson) discovered in 1802 that five dogs of European origin were there before him. [ 118 ] One theory holds that other domestic dogs adopt the role of the "pure" dingo. [ 119 ] Introduced animals, such as the water buffalo and the domestic cat, have been adopted into the indigenous Aboriginal culture in the forms of rituals , traditional paintings, and dreamtime stories. [ 116 ] Most of the published myths originate from the Western Desert and show a remarkable complexity. In some stories, dingoes are the central characters, while in others, they are only minor ones. One time, an ancestor from the Dreamtime created humans and dingoes or gave them their current shape. Stories mention creation, socially acceptable behaviour, and explanations why some things are the way they are. Myths exist about shapeshifters (human to dingo or vice versa), "dingo-people", and the creat

Economic

Livestock farming expanded across Australia from the early 1800s, which led to conflict between the dingo and graziers. Sheep, and to a lesser extent cattle, are an easy target for dingoes. The pastoralists and the government bodies that support this industry have shot, trapped, and poisoned dingoes or destroyed dingo pups in their dens. After two centuries of persecution, the dingo or dingo–dog hybrids can still be found across most of the continent. [ 103 ] Research on the real extent of the damage and the reason for this problem only started recently. Livestock can die from many causes, and when the carcass is found, determining with certainty the cause of death is often difficult. Since the outcome of an attack on livestock depends to a high degree on the behaviour and experience of the predator and the prey, only direct observation is certain to determine whether an attack was by dingoes or other domestic dogs. Even the existence of remnants of the prey in the scat of wild dogs does not prove they are pests, since wild dogs also eat carrion. The cattle industry can tolerate low to moderate, and sometimes high, numbers of wild dogs (therefore dingoes are not so easily regarded as pests in these areas). In the case of sheep and goats, a zero-tolerance attitude is common. The biggest threats are dogs that live inside or near the paddock areas. The extent of sheep loss is hard to determine due to the wide pasture lands in some parts of Australia. [ citation needed ] In 2006, cattle losses in the Northern Territory rangeland grazing areas were estimated to be up to 30%. [ 96 ] Therefore, factors such as availability of native prey, as well as the defending behaviour and health of the cattle, play an important role in the number of losses. A study in Central Australia in 2003 confirmed that dingoes only have a low impact on cattle numbers when a sufficient supply of other prey (such as kangaroos and rabbits) is available. In some parts of Australia, the loss of calves is assumed to be minimised if horned cattle are used instead of polled . [ 82 ] The precise economic impact is not known, and the rescue of some calves is unlikely to compensate for the necessary costs of control measures. Calves usually suffer less lethal wounds than sheep due to their size and the protection by adult cattle, so they have a higher chance of surviving an attack. As a result, the evidence of a dog attack may only be discovered after the cattle have been herded back into the enclosure, [ clarification needed ] and signs such as bitten ears, tails, and other wounds are discovered. The opinions of cattle owners regarding dingoes are more variable than those of sheep owners. Some cattle owners believe that the weakened mother losing her calf is better in times of drought so that she does not have to care for her calf, too. Therefore, these owners are more hesitant to kill dingoes. [ 97 ] The cattle industry may benefit from the predation of dingoes on rabbits, kangaroos,

Lifespan

Dingoes in the wild live 3–5 years with few living past 7–8 years. Some have been recorded living up to 10 years. In captivity, they live for 14–16 years. [ 57 ] One dingo has been recorded to live just under 20 years. [ 58 ]

Taxonomy

Dogs associated with indigenous people were first recorded by Jan Carstenszoon in the Cape York Peninsula area in 1623. [ 15 ] In 1699, Captain William Dampier visited the coast of what is now Western Australia and recorded that "my men saw two or three beasts like hungry wolves, lean like so many skeletons, being nothing but skin and bones". [ 16 ] In 1788, the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay under the command of Australia's first colonial governor, Arthur Phillip , who took ownership of a dingo [ 7 ] and in his journal made a brief description with an illustration of the "Dog of New South Wales". [ 14 ] In 1793, based on Phillip's brief description and illustration, the "Dog of New South Wales" was classified by Friedrich Meyer as Canis dingo . [ 17 ] In 1999, a study of the maternal lineage through the use of mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) as a genetic marker indicates that the dingo and New Guinea singing dog developed at a time when human populations were more isolated from each other. [ 18 ] In the third edition of Mammal Species of the World , published in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft listed under the wolf Canis lupus its wild subspecies, and proposed two additional subspecies: " familiaris Linnaeus, 1758 [domestic dog]" and " dingo Meyer, 1793 [domestic dog]". Wozencraft included hallstromi —the New Guinea singing dog—as a taxonomic synonym for the dingo. He referred to the mDNA study as one of the guides in forming his decision. [ 19 ] The inclusion of familiaris and dingo under a "domestic dog" clade has been noted by other mammalogists, [ 20 ] and their classification under the wolf debated. [ 21 ] In 2019, a workshop hosted by the IUCN /SSC Canid Specialist Group considered the New Guinea singing dog and the dingo to be feral dogs ( Canis familiaris ), which therefore should not be assessed for the IUCN Red List . [ 22 ] In 2020, the American Society of Mammalogists considered the dingo a synonym of the domestic dog. [ 23 ] Recent DNA sequencing of a 'pure' wild dingo from South Australia suggests that the dingo has a different DNA methylation pattern from the German Shepherd. [ 5 ] [ further explanation needed ] In 2024, a study found that the Dingo and New Guinea singing dog show 5.5% genome introgression from the ancestor of the recently extinct Japanese wolf , with Japanese dogs showing 4% genome introgression. This introgression occurred before the ancestor of the Japanese wolf arrived in Japan. [ 24 ]

Considering a Dingo? Research breeders carefully, ask for health clearances, and consider adoption first. Check local shelters and breed-specific rescues before buying from a breeder.