Wild dog Dingo – one of the unique breeds of dogs that was once domesticated, and then again wild. To date, this breed of dog is the only placental predator that lives in Australia. The name of this breed of dog comes from the word “tingo”, which locals called dogs.
Dingo dogs, which were domestic pets of Australian Aborigines, at one point fled from them or were abandoned by their masters. Thus, life forced them to return to the wild way of life and move to a new habitat for them.
Here, in the rich Australian nature, they found everything that they needed to survive. This is a large number of game, as well as almost complete absence of any dangers (competitors in this food environment have almost no dingo). The wild dingoes occupied almost the entire territory of Australia, as well as the closest islands except Tasmania.
The main advantage of dingo, which makes them the strongest for the closest competitors in this natural environment, is the opportunity to hunt in organized groups or flocks. In this respect, they outstrip even the largest marsupial predator on the continent, the marsupial wolf.
In the scientific world, two points of view about dingo dogs are accepted. The first claims that this is a separate species, which has its own name Canis dingo. The second point of view distinguishes these dogs as a kind of domestic dog, taking as a basis the theory of its origin from thoroughbred domesticated wolves.
Dingo is a medium-sized dog with a strong muscular body of reddish-brown color, a pointed head, short ears and a fluffy tail. Some have their ears sticking out, others have hanging ones, their tail is bent differently. Occasionally there are individuals of black, dark brown, white suits and spotted.
Their lairs wild dogs arrange in caves, pits or among the roots of large trees. Both parents look after the offspring. For four months, the mother feeds the babies with milk. In five months begins to teach them the hunt for small rodents and rabbits. The year-old dingo is already on par with older dogs taking part in the hunting for large mammals.
The main diet of dingo dogs are small animals – rabbits, wallabies, less often – small kangaroos. Sometimes dogs have to eat birds, snakes, lizards or even insects. In exceptional cases, dingoes feed on carrion.
