Dingo (Australian wild dog). Dingo is Australia's dog that has run wild. Description and photo of a dingo dog

The wild dingo dog is perhaps the only one of all the representatives of the wild nature that can become attached to a person and live with him, in contrast to the same wolves. There are many cases when a person took babies for himself, and they, in turn, developed like domestic dogs.

The dingo dog can be found in Australia. Outwardly, she resembles both a wolf and a domestic dog at the same time. The animal is small in stature, at the withers about fifty centimeters, but there are also especially large individuals, mostly males, they can reach seventy centimeters. Dingos are very beautiful and even cute, dogs have a rather large head and a rounded nose, ears are wide and erect. The coat of Australian inhabitants is usually sandy brown with a grayish tinge. Albinos are also quite rare, mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the country. You can also find dogs with very dark hair, such individuals appeared from crossing with domestic breeds of dogs, presumably with shepherds.

For a long time, the dingoes were the masters of the continent, as well as the surrounding islands. We can say that they had neither rivals nor competitors, the exception was, perhaps, the marsupial wolf, Australian possum and thylacin.

The dingo animal can be safely called a nocturnal animal. These cute dogs live mainly in forests, usually only where dry climates prevail, for example, in eucalyptus thickets or arid deserts that are located in the interior of the mainland. The wild dog dingo is a predatory animal, they hunt birds, reptiles and numerous marsupials that live in these parts. As a rule, dogs arrange their dwellings among the roots of huge trees, in pits, or they choose caves for their place of residence. In a word, they choose exclusively secluded places for housing, those that are closed from prying eyes and are inaccessible to people. Dogs live in packs for a certain period of time, until puppies grow up and go into adulthood.

Dingos are the oldest animals in Australia. The dingo dog has lived on this continent for over six thousand years. The remains of ancient dogs are found mixed with the remains of marsupials. Scientists still cannot establish the exact origin of the dingo, and controversy continues to this day.

Dogs mate in the winter season, and puppies are born in the spring. Pregnancy, like other dogs, does not last long, about nine weeks. After that, about eight puppies are born. They do not go out until two months, at which time they live in their den, where their mother feeds them with milk.

Puppies live with their parents for up to two years, during which time they learn everything necessary for life and learn to hunt. Dogs go hunting, as a rule, in pairs or alone. Family flocks consisting of five or six individuals are much less common, most often a mother with her cubs.

Dingoes are real masters of hunting, they competently approach this process, and quite consciously choose an object for hunting. In addition, wild dogs are very fast, their speed can be up to sixty kilometers per hour. Predators treat everything new with distrust, and this helps them to survive in difficult conditions, where danger lies in wait for them at every step. Their main enemy is man. Due to the fact that dogs lead a nocturnal and rather secretive lifestyle, not very, to put it mildly, smart people christened them cowards and fools, although, in fact, everything is exactly the opposite. Dingos are smart, courageous, dexterous, resourceful and quick-witted, and the courage of these animals can only be envied. It is clear that they are nocturnal solely because of their characteristics, and not because they are not brave enough to go out in broad daylight.

Since the Europeans arrived on the continent, the life of the wild dog has changed a lot, it has new neighbors. People brought with them sheep, which bred and began to live in the territory, on the same equal rights as other animals. The rabbits also arrived, which later became the main prey of the dingo.

However, many say that dingoes are not truly wild animals and predators, but are feral domestic dogs, possibly from the most ancient prehistoric era. In the seventeenth century, when the first Europeans set foot on the land of Australia, they found at that time, in addition to the dingo, only bats and rats that lived there. The presence of rats and mice can be quite easily explained, it is believed that the mice came from Asia, and the rats got here on the trees brought by the current. But many find it difficult to explain the presence of dogs. According to one of the versions, many centuries ago, Asia and Australia were connected by land, scientists believe that this is why the dogs got here on the connecting bridge. Based on this version, the question arises - why did not marsupials or other animals living in Asia at that time get in the same way?

Dingos are said to be the descendants of the dogs of the indigenous Asian tribes. Once upon a time, they came with sailors, or on their own, to Australia and bred here. There are many similarities between the dogs of Asia and the dingo, for example, they both never bark, but only screech or howl. We can say that they are "talkative" animals. For example, they always give a voice when they approach their home. In a moment of danger, they, too, are never silent. Dingos also give voice to fierce fights among themselves. The howling of dogs can be heard at night, during the day they are most often silent. Despite their difficult and, perhaps, ferocious disposition, dingos never attack people. It is believed that this is an echo of their ancient nature, and the memory that they once lived with a person.

Quite often, cattle breeders took on very small wild dogs for their upbringing, which in the future behaved exclusively like pets, and even barked and began to wag their tail!

Quite often it happens that a person, invading someone else's territory, establishes his rights, and this is what happened with Australia. People began to kill dogs with guns, set traps on them, and poison them with poison. But dingoes defend their rights and try to escape from the most bloodthirsty animal in the world, whose name is man.

Taking a look at dingo photo, it is difficult to immediately determine that this dog is so wild (and repeated) that its representatives are not able to bark, but only howl and make growling sounds.

Dingo dog belongs to one of the oldest breeds, therefore, the origin of the species is not known for certain, however, there are several hypotheses and versions in this regard.

According to one of them, wild dingo originate from the Chinese breed of dogs, according to the other, representatives of the species were brought to Australia by Asian travelers, traders and settlers.

There is also a mythological version that says that the dingo is a descendant descended from a mixture of pario dogs and wolves from India.

Dingo dog features and habitat

To date, representatives dingo breed can be found virtually throughout Australia, as well as in Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, hectares of the islands of Borneo and New Guinea.

The dingo dog is one of the main predators of the Australian islands

The body length of the animal usually does not exceed one hundred and twenty centimeters, the height of the dingo ranges from 50 - 55 centimeters. The tail is of medium size, its length is usually from 24 to 40 centimeters.

Dingo dogs range in weight from 8 to 20 kg, with males significantly larger and heavier than females. Scientists have repeatedly noted that the representatives of dingo dogs living in the modern territory are much larger than their counterparts from Asian countries.

The dingo's coat is distinguished by its thick and short hair length. The fur is usually red in color with various shades. The muzzle and belly are somewhat lighter than the rest of the color; on the back, on the contrary, there are the darkest places.

There are varieties wild dog dingo black color, which, according to some scientists, occurred as a result of crossing with German.

Dingo dog personality and lifestyle

Dingo dogs are predators, therefore they are predominantly nocturnal. Most often, they can be found among the thickets of eucalyptus or along forest edges. In some cases, dingo dogs can settle in mountain caves and gorges. A prerequisite should be the presence of a water source nearby.

Dingos form societies, which are flocks of twelve or more individuals. In such communities, a strict hierarchy reigns: the central place and the greatest influence is one pair of animals, which dominates the rest of the community.

Dingo dogs are incredibly intelligent animals. The reason for their large distribution throughout Australia and others is the fact that they, having barely got into a new habitat for themselves, not only perfectly adapt to it, but also exterminate competitors.

Today they have virtually eliminated the species of marsupial and marsupial wolves. It is very difficult to hunt dingo dogs, because animals easily recognize traps and skillfully avoid traps. Their main enemies at the moment are large dogs of some other breeds.

As mentioned above, in the process of becoming feral, dingo dogs have lost the ability to bark. Like wolves, they make terrifying growling sounds, and of course howl.

Each dingo dog community has its own territory in which it hunts for other animals as well. Having united in a large flock, dingo dogs often attack farms and sheep pastures, causing them serious damage.

The peculiarities of the character of dingo dogs are reflected in the cinema and literature. In particular, in story"Wild dog dingo» Soviet writer R.I. Fraerman describes a girl, Tanya, who dreamed of an Australian dog, while her character was in many ways consistent with the behavior of this animal.

This was expressed in isolation, self-esteem and extraordinary sanity.

For those who want buy dingo, it should be understood that this dog is by no means a pet and it is as difficult to tame it as it is to tame a wolf. In addition, these animals are distributed mainly in Australia and some Asian countries, therefore dingo price very high.

Dingo dog food

Dingo dogs are nocturnal predators and can hunt singly or in packs. The diet of Australian dingoes mainly includes small mammals such as rabbits, birds, lizards, and rats.

In the absence of normal prey, they can feed on carrion. Huddling in a flock, dingoes hunt kangaroos and some other large animals. They often attack households by stealing sheep, goats, chickens, chickens and geese.

Asian dingos eat slightly different foods. Most of their diet consists of various waste that people throw away, namely: fish and meat leftovers, vegetables, fruits, rice and other cereals.

Because Australian Dingos have caused huge damage to agriculture and farming, the country spends huge amounts of money annually to combat these dogs. Today, Australian pastures are surrounded by a fence more than eight thousand kilometers long, along which patrols regularly ply, eliminating holes and breaks in the grid.

Dingo dog reproduction and lifespan

Puberty in dingo dogs occurs at about the age of two years. Unlike domestic dogs, dingo puppies from one female are born once a year.

The mating season is in the spring, and the female's pregnancy usually lasts from sixty to seventy days. Puppies are born blind, and an exclusively dominant female reproduces in the pack, which kills all other puppies.

Pictured is a dingo dog puppy

Puppies born in a pack by a dominant female are taken care of by the whole community. At two months of age, puppies should leave the den and live with other members of the pack.

Until the three-month period, the puppies are fed by all members of the community, after which the puppies begin to hunt together, accompanying the older individuals. A dingo dog has a life span of five to ten years in the wild. In captivity, they take root badly and often run away, although some Australians manage to tame them.

Dingo dog is an Australian once domesticated dog. The term Dingo means a re-feral domestic dog. Dingo remains in Australia date back to 3,500 BC, although similar remains found in Asia date back to about 5,000 BC. This led to the theory that all Australian Dingos are descendants of dogs introduced to Australia from Asia around 4000 BC. Since there are few predators in Australia, and the dingoes themselves have become the largest, there is a lot of game and a warm climate, the abandoned dogs have perfectly adapted to an independent life. Dingo dogs have spread throughout the continent. It is believed that Dingo dogs are direct descendants of the once domesticated wolves of India, which very quickly became feral again in Australia.

Dingo dogs appearance

The dog is of medium size, the height at the withers at the cables is up to 67 cm. Females are much smaller than males. Red in color, tightly built and muscular dogs. Erect ears, square muzzle, fluffy tail. Dingo dogs they do not know how to bark, like wolves, they can only grumble and growl, and of course all Dingos howl.

Dingo Dog Lifestyle

Dingo dogs are nocturnal animals. They live in caves and burrows. They feed on small mammals, mainly rabbits, but also prey on kangaroos and wallabies. With the advent of farms in Australia and the development of cattle breeding, they began to hunt livestock. This provoked farmers to shoot wild dogs. But the Dingo quickly realized that easy prey was too expensive and stopped openly attacking, but as it turned out later, they do not always eat sheep, but only kill. Since Dingos are direct descendants of wolves (as scientists believe), like wolves, they live in packs of 4-10 individuals. The whole flock is built around the leader and his female.

Dingos are very intelligent animals, so the first thing they did when they got to the mainland was to eliminate such rivals as marsupial wolves and marsupial devils. In addition, Dingos can easily avoid the traps and traps that people set. At the moment, their main competitors are jackals.

In the world, these dogs are kept in zoos and there are even nurseries for breeding them. But the nature of these dogs is so obstinate and rebellious that it is almost impossible to tame and keep them as pets. These dogs love freedom, large spaces and hunting. Dingo dogs begin to hunt puppies from 5 months, so by 1-1.5 years they become excellent hunters.

Significance of Dingo in the Human World

Since the sheep were “slaughtered” and a lot of money was spent on fighting them, the people decided to fence off the pastures. Its length is 8500 km and it is interrupted only on the sections where the highway runs. Millions of dollars are spent annually on maintaining this structure. There is a special patrol that looks for damage in the fence mesh and repairs it.

Dingos are perhaps the most amazing dogs, they were singled out as a separate species, although initially it was only a breed of dog. Now the population of Dingo dogs is not threatened and people do not stop trying to domesticate representatives of these amazing, intelligent and beautiful animals.

Dingo Dog Photos

The dingo wild dog is the only example of a second feral dog of its kind. Feral is not the same as homeless, wandering. In Australia, the dingo got together with the man, but freed from his patronage and became a full-fledged wild subspecies.

Why dingoes run wild is not known for certain. But we can recall that the alliance between man and dog (more precisely, man and wolf) was formed on the basis of joint hunting for big game. Domesticated animals also helped guard human settlements from large wild predators. In Australia, by the time the ancestors of the dingo appeared there, large game animals had already been knocked out, the remaining land predators (such as the marsupial wolf) did not pose a serious threat to either humans or dogs. But the whole continent was full of tasty game, slow and dumb - small and medium-sized marsupials, which dogs could successfully hunt without human help.

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Separated from people, red dogs quickly conquered all of Australia, simultaneously completely displacing clumsy competitors - the marsupial wolf and the marshy devil (who survived only in Tasmania, where the dingo did not get). Aliens conquered almost all landscapes of the continent - from humid tropical forests to arid semi-deserts.

While the newly minted superpredator was hunting rabbits or even kangaroos, there were no problems with the former owner. They began with the arrival of sheep in Australia. Dingos willingly included them in their menu, and not only lambs, but also adult animals. Domestic sheep are not able to either run away from the dingo, or to resist, therefore, the dogs that caught the herd often killed many more animals than they could eat. Understandably, this incurred the righteous wrath of the sheep breeders on the dingo. Red dogs were outlawed, they were exterminated by all available means: they shot all year round at every opportunity, caught with traps, poisoned them with poisons.

Since the 1840s, the construction of mesh fences began, which by the 1960s united a single system, stretching for a total of more than 5600 kilometers and separating the fertile southeast of Australia from the rest of the continent. But, despite the regular patching up of the fence and the destruction of burrows and excavations, wild dogs today live on both sides of it.

Australia's destiny is to build fences from invasive animal species brought in by humans and bred too much on the Green Continent. The company, along with the dingo, also included rabbits and camels.

Having crossed over to a free life, red dogs quickly restored the social structure that is characteristic of many wild canines, including the ancestors of all wolf dogs. Dingos live in small family groups based on a dominant couple. All puppies appearing in the group are the children of these two individuals, the rest of the group (the grown cubs of the main pair, sometimes brothers and sisters of the dominant male and female) remain without offspring, unless they leave the pack and find territory for themselves and partners to create their own family ... The younger puppies of the main pair are cared for by all members of the group.

Dingos are tireless hunters capable of covering vast distances in the desert. Sometimes they play with each other almost like domestic dogs, but, unlike the latter, they practically do not bark, but they often howl.

For sheep farmers, ginger dogs have been and remain enemy number one. Therefore, in most areas of the country, dingoes belong to the Sopaska person and try not to catch his eye. But where dingoes stop being afraid of people, people have to be afraid of dingo. In 1980, Australia was shocked by the death of Azaria Chamberlain, a two-month-old girl who was dragged out of a tent in a camp by a wild dog right in front of her mother. Cases of attacks of "lured" animals on people (albeit without tragic outcomes) were noted there earlier.

As a result, the current status of the dingo is paradoxical. Farmers and special services created by the authorities of the sheep-breeding states continue a hopeless war with burnt dogs, trying, if not to exterminate them, then at least to contain the growth of their numbers. At the same time, in national parks and reserves, dingoes are considered a protected species.

The future of the dingo is indeed alarming. Not because of guns or fences, but because of mass crossing with domestic and stray dogs, eroding the gene pool of dingoes and, as a result, their characteristic appearance. About 90% of the wild dogs that live on the eastern (most populated and developed) coast of Australia are hybrids of dingoes and domestic dogs of different breeds. Such hybrids are not uncommon in the rest of the country, with the exception of national parks and sparsely populated areas. This process worries not only wildlife scientists and defenders: hybrid dogs are more fertile (since they breed more than once, twice a year) and are usually more aggressive.

Dingo
Scientific classification
International scientific name
Canis lupus dingo Meyer, 1793
Synonyms
Canis dingo
Taxonomy on Wikisource Images at Wikimedia Commons ITIS NCBI EOL

History

Judging by the fossil remains, dingoes were brought to Australia not by early settlers (about 40,000-50,000 years ago), as previously thought, but by immigrants from Southeast Asia (possibly from the Malay Archipelago). The oldest dingo skull found in Vietnam is approximately 5,500 years old; remains of this dog from 2500 to 5000 years old are also found in other parts of Southeast Asia, and the oldest fossilized remains of a dingo in Australia are about 3450 years old. Dingo mitochondrial DNA studies published in 2004 date their appearance in Australia to 4000 BC. NS.; presumably all Australian dingos are descended from one small group. Combining data from genetics and archeology, scientists have come to the conclusion that dingo dogs came to Australia from 5,000 to 12,000 years ago thanks to hunters and gatherers of the Toalea tribe ( Toalean) from the south of the island of Sulawesi, who probably themselves received them from their neighbors in Kalimantan. The dingo lacks multiple copies of the starch-digesting gene that arose in domestic dogs as a result of living with agricultural peoples. Dingos carry the unique Y-chromosomal haplogroup H60, which is derived from the Y-chromosomal haplogroup H5 common in Taiwan. H5 and H60 form one cluster with an indication of a common male ancestor who lived 4-5 thousand years BC. BC, which coincides with the expansion of the Tai Kadai languages ​​from southern China. According to archeology, dingoes came to Australia about 3,500 years ago. Dingo bones from Madura Cave in Nullarbor Plain are dated between 3348-3081 years ago.

In Australia, dingoes who fled or were abandoned by their owners found excellent living conditions: a lot of game, the absence of enemies and serious competitors, multiplied and settled throughout the continent and the nearest islands, not only getting to Tasmania. The ability to hunt in packs gave them an important advantage over solitary marsupial predators. Presumably, dingoes caused the extinction of a number of representatives of marsupials.

Usually the dingo is considered a subspecies of the gray wolf, but some experts consider it to be a completely independent species. It is believed that the dingo is an almost purebred descendant of the domesticated Indian wolf, which is still in the wild on the Indian subcontinent and Baluchistan. In 1958, a New Guinea Singing Dog, similar to the dingo, but only smaller, was discovered in the forests of New Guinea. The wild Caroline dog, recently discovered in the southeastern United States, also resembles the dingo.

Appearance

Dingo looks like a well-built dog of medium size: height at the withers 47-67 cm, body length with head 86-122 cm, tail length 26-38 cm. Weight 9.60-19 kg, rarely up to 24 kg and more. Males are much larger than females, and Asiatic dingoes are smaller than their Australian counterparts, apparently due to a diet poor in proteins. The constitution of the dingo resembles a hound. The muzzle is square; ears are small, erect. The tail is fluffy, saber-shaped.

The dingo's fur is short and dense, the typical color is rusty-red or reddish-brown, lighter on the muzzle and belly. Occasionally there are individuals of almost black color, white and piebald. In the southeast of Australia, the gray-white dingo breed lives. Black and tan dingos (similar to the Rottweiler) are considered dingo hybrids with domestic dogs, probably German shepherds.

Purebred dingos do not bark, but they can growl and howl like a wolf.

Spreading

Lifestyle and diet

Young dingoes usually live alone outside breeding seasons, although they can form groups when hunting big game. On the congregations, sometimes hundreds of dogs were observed falling. Stable family flocks in dingoes consist of 3-12 individuals, as in wolves, grouping around a dominant pair. Family groups follow a strict hierarchy. Each flock has its own hunting area, which it protects from neighbors.

Before the arrival of Europeans, dingoes were the main predators of Australia. According to one theory, once on the mainland, they gradually pressed and exterminated most of the aboriginal predators, including the marsupial wolf and the marsupial devil. However, it is now generally believed that the main reason for the disappearance of marsupial predators was anthropogenic impact, and not competition. Dingos are quick-witted and agile. Their characteristic feature is extreme caution, which helps them to successfully avoid traps and poisoned baits. It is believed that purebred dingoes do not attack people (however, there is an exception to this rule - for example, the death of Azaria Chamberlain). The main competitors of the dingo are jackals and dogs introduced by Europeans. Adults can be eaten by crocodiles, while young ones are hunted by large birds of prey, pythons and monitor lizards.

Reproduction

Dingos live in small flocks, in which only the dominant pair breed. If another female gives birth to cubs, the dominant female kills them. Low-ranking females and males take care of the cubs of the main female. The dingo hierarchy is built on intimidation and occasional fights.

Unlike a normal dog, dingoes breed once a year. The mating season for Australian dingos is in March-April, and for Asian dingos, in August-September. The gestation period, as in dogs, is 63 days. There are usually 6-8 puppies in the litter, which the female gives birth to in the den. Puppies are born blind but covered in hair. Both parents look after the offspring.

At the age of 3 weeks, dingo puppies leave their native den for the first time, and the female stops feeding them with milk. By 8 weeks, they finally leave the den and live with other members of the pack. From 9 to 12 weeks, the mother and the rest of the pack bring them food and water, which they regurgitate and feed the puppies. At 3-4 months, the puppies are already independent and accompany adults on the hunt.

Dingo puberty occurs at the age of 1-3 years. Dingos are monogamous. They live for 10 years in nature and up to 13 years in captivity.

Dingos and domestic dogs interbreed easily, and wild populations of dingoes are highly hybridized. The exceptions are populations found in Australian national parks and other protected areas. The offspring of dingoes and dogs pose a great threat to sheep breeding, as non-purebred dingoes tend to breed 2 times a year (and not once as purebred ones) and are more aggressive.