Dingo - Australian Museum

ANIMAL SPECIES:Dingo

The Dingo - a placental mammal - is Australia's largest surviving meat-eating mammal. It was probably introduced to Australia by sea-faring people about 4,000 years ago. Its origins have been traced back to a south Asian variety of Grey Wolf (Canis lupus lupus).

Distribution

For many years it was believed that Dingoes were brought to Australia by Aboriginal people, but this theory has now largely been discarded. Instead, it seems more likely that Asian seafarers transported Dingoes from mainland Asia, through South-East Asia to Australia and other parts of the Pacific, during their voyages over the last 5000 years. Fossil evidence suggests that Dingoes arrived in Australia around 3500 - 4000 years ago, and quickly spread to all parts of the Australian mainland and offshore islands, with the exception of Tasmania.

Conservation Status

Dingoes have a very short history in Australia compared with the 55-million-year history of marsupial predators. However, during their 4,000 years of occupation, Dingoes have adapted quickly to fit a wide variety of Australian habitats and have in turn changed the ecosystems of which they are a part. Although the Dingo is regarded as a pest in some states, there are moves to have it protected in others.

The fact that Thylacines survived until the 1930s in Tasmania where Dingoes were absent was often put forward as further indirect evidence that they were a major cause for the disappearance of Thylacines from the mainland. However, the role of Dingoes in the extinction of the Thylacine has recently been questioned. Evidence presented by Robert Paddle in his book, The Last Tasmanian Tiger, points to alteration of the environment and competition with humans as the main cause. The timing of their disappearance is also challenged by the discovery of records from early naturalists and interviews with Aboriginal people from South Australia that indicate Thylacines may have persisted on the mainland until much more recently.