The first Dingo to reach Australia
The mother of all dingoes was most probably a single pregnant female.
An intelligent animal, she trotted across the landbridge from Indonesia to Australia about 5,000 years ago and made a home for herself close to the people who inhabited the great Southern Land.
Her descendants are the last ancient living link between the wolf and the domestic pooch. Now they are threatened with extinction.
While the dingo may occupy a sacred place in the Dreamtime stories of indigenous Australians, much of the broader population still holds the view that it is a cunning creature, a cold-hearted hunter, merciless baby-snatcher.
This is a terrible unwarranted misconception.
An intelligent animal, she trotted across the landbridge from Indonesia to Australia about 5,000 years ago and made a home for herself close to the people who inhabited the great Southern Land.
Her descendants are the last ancient living link between the wolf and the domestic pooch. Now they are threatened with extinction.
While the dingo may occupy a sacred place in the Dreamtime stories of indigenous Australians, much of the broader population still holds the view that it is a cunning creature, a cold-hearted hunter, merciless baby-snatcher.
This is a terrible unwarranted misconception.
Dingo, the first dog
Ancestor of all dog breeds
It was less than 15,000 years ago, near China, when someone tamed the first wolf, and 10,000 years later when the dog reached Australia. The Dingo is the ancestor of all dog breeds, the pure original dog before the intensive breeding by humans over the last 500 years.
But modern dogs have interbred and the pure dingo is becoming scarce. The modern breed called the Australian Cattle Dog owes much to dingo stock.
Today interbreeding domestic dogs with the Dingo is illegal. Much of Australian economy is dependent on cattle and sheep production and the Dingo is classified as vermin in his homeland.
But modern dogs have interbred and the pure dingo is becoming scarce. The modern breed called the Australian Cattle Dog owes much to dingo stock.
Today interbreeding domestic dogs with the Dingo is illegal. Much of Australian economy is dependent on cattle and sheep production and the Dingo is classified as vermin in his homeland.
Quick Dingo Facts
Australia's largest mammalian predator
Strongly territorial and highly intelligent
Do not bark, but howl
Are likely to be extinct within 20 years
What does a dingo look like?
The appearance of a real dingo - not cross breeds
Dingos are medium-sized dogs about the size of a small German Shepherd with short, gingery yellowish-tan fur that can sometimes vary from black to cream to brindle. It's most commonly ginger-colored with white points to the ears and tail.
They have very mobile ears and sharp light-coloured intense eyes that range from yellow to orange.
Dingos don't bark
Dingos seldom bark, instead they communicate with distinctive yelps, yodels and eerie howls.
They have very mobile ears and sharp light-coloured intense eyes that range from yellow to orange.
Dingos don't bark
Dingos seldom bark, instead they communicate with distinctive yelps, yodels and eerie howls.
Mark Twain tells of the Dingo
" The oldest dog in the universe"
Mark Twain said of the dingo.....
"I also saw the wild Australian dog - the dingo. He was a beautiful creature, shapely, graceful, a little wolfish in some of his aspects, but with a most friendly eye and sociable disposition.
The dingo is not an importation he was present in great force when the whites first came to the continent. It may be that he is the oldest dog in the universe, his origin, his descent, the place where his ancestors first appeared are as unknown and as untraceable as the camel.
He is the most precious dog in the world for he does not bark, but in an evil hour he got to raiding sheep runs to appease his hunger and that seals his doom, he is hunted now just as if he were a wolf, he has been sentenced to extermination and the sentence will be carried out.....
"I also saw the wild Australian dog - the dingo. He was a beautiful creature, shapely, graceful, a little wolfish in some of his aspects, but with a most friendly eye and sociable disposition.
The dingo is not an importation he was present in great force when the whites first came to the continent. It may be that he is the oldest dog in the universe, his origin, his descent, the place where his ancestors first appeared are as unknown and as untraceable as the camel.
He is the most precious dog in the world for he does not bark, but in an evil hour he got to raiding sheep runs to appease his hunger and that seals his doom, he is hunted now just as if he were a wolf, he has been sentenced to extermination and the sentence will be carried out.....
The Dingo Fence
Over 5000 miles of fence
When European settlers first arrived in Australia, the Dingo was tolerated, even welcomed, but that changed rapidly when sheep became an important part of the white economy.
Dingos were trapped, shot on sight, and poisoned regardless of whether they were wild or belonged to Aboriginal people.
In the 1880s, construction of the great Dingo Fence began. The Dingo Fence was designed to keep Dingos out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland.
The Fence runs approximately 8500 kilometres, coast-to-coast from the Great Australian Bight to the east coast of Queensland through thousands of miles of arid country.
The Dingo and the Baby
The Tragedy of Lindy Chamberlain
In 1980, Lindy Chamberlain was found guilty of murdering her infant daughter.
She claimed a dingo had taken her baby from the tent in a camping spot in central Australia. Her husband and fellow campers backed her claims, as did members of the Aboriginal community in the vicinity. International and local legal experts questioned whether she had been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and controversy raged. The result was two books, a film, interesting argument in the press and Lindy Chamberlain in jail.
In 1986 a matinee jacket belonging to baby Azaria was found in a dingo's lair in arid country near Uluru, The jacket had been ripped by the teeth of a dingo and fragments of flesh which were still attached were those of a human infant. Ms Chamberlain was pardoned in 1988. An excellent resource on this topic is Evil Angels, the story of Lindy Chamberlain.
In 2001 two wild dingoes attacked and killed a nine year old boy at Fraser Island. There was an uproar in the media, graphic eyewitness accounts and little mention given to the dangers of approaching wild animals, any wild animals.
These attacks on humans were horrific and terrifying to the rest of the country, but the wave of dingo slaughter which followed the tragedy on Fraser Island was unwarranted.
She claimed a dingo had taken her baby from the tent in a camping spot in central Australia. Her husband and fellow campers backed her claims, as did members of the Aboriginal community in the vicinity. International and local legal experts questioned whether she had been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and controversy raged. The result was two books, a film, interesting argument in the press and Lindy Chamberlain in jail.
In 1986 a matinee jacket belonging to baby Azaria was found in a dingo's lair in arid country near Uluru, The jacket had been ripped by the teeth of a dingo and fragments of flesh which were still attached were those of a human infant. Ms Chamberlain was pardoned in 1988. An excellent resource on this topic is Evil Angels, the story of Lindy Chamberlain.
In 2001 two wild dingoes attacked and killed a nine year old boy at Fraser Island. There was an uproar in the media, graphic eyewitness accounts and little mention given to the dangers of approaching wild animals, any wild animals.
These attacks on humans were horrific and terrifying to the rest of the country, but the wave of dingo slaughter which followed the tragedy on Fraser Island was unwarranted.
There have been three reported dingo attacks in 200 years, compared to about 14,000 reported domestic dog attacks in one year.
Tragedies can happen when humans come into close proximity with wild animals.
Dingoes are wild dogs, don't ever attempt to feed, or otherwise encourage, any wild animal.
The Future of the Dingo
Extinction doesn't have to be inevitable!
Today Dingoes are under threat of extinction from one primary source.In more settled coastal areas of Australia as well as the Outback, barriers between domestic dogs, both feral and urban, and the Dingo are being rapidly removed. Cross breeding is common and the pure Dingo gene pool is being swamped.
Already in the South-Eastern highlands about one third of the populations are cross-breeds or hybrids, and the extinction of the pure Dingo seems inevitable.
In 1993 the Dingo was recognised by the Australian National Kennel Council as an official dog breed and adopted as Australia's national breed.
So what does the future hold for the Dingo?
Laurie Corbet, in The Dingo in Australia and Asia says ..
The Dingo has faced many battles for survival against man and nature, from fullscale eradication campaigns and enormous fences to unjustified victimisation and subversive genetic manipulations.
Although Dingoes have won most of the battles, the cruel irony is that they are steadily losing the war, thanks to their evolutionary progeny, domestic dogs. In the end, their chances of continued survival in the wild will rest solely on the efforts of an informed public to stop contact between Dingoes and domestic dogs, and to take pride in Dingoes as native species."
World Animal Day Walk
with Sampson, the Victorian Alpine Dingo
Sampson, the Victorian alpine dingo, and his owner, Sharon Rivett, took a four-kilometre walk around the city of Melbourne on October 4th for World Animal Day.
Not that it was all sunshine and tail wags. Sampson walked to raise awareness of the dingo as a threatened species in Victoria.
Currently fighting for their recognition as native animals - dingoes fall into the same category as exotic pests such as rabbits and foxes - Ms Rivett and her fellow members of the Dingo CARE Network fear that, unless moves are made to protect the dogs soon, Sampson may be one of the last chances we have to see a pure dingo in all his clever, nimble, bronzed glory.
The Dingo: In Australia and Asia (Cornell Paperbacks)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/28/2009) 
To Protect and Save the Dingo
To protect and save the dingo from extinction the situation for the dingo must be reversed.
- The dingo must be recognised as Australia's top order predator
- Australians must change the status of the dingo from pest to Native Fauna
- Core habitat areas must be protected, and the gene pool must be conserved for the survival of the dingo.
- 1080 baiting programs on dingoes must cease
- Australians must stop the contact between domestic dogs and dingoes in all regions of Australia.
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Leave a Comment for the Dingo
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- Demaw Demaw Sep 16, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
- Hopefully the dingo will have a continued future. 5*
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- AnimalGuy AnimalGuy May 13, 2009 @ 11:51 am
- Very nice lens! I am a big pet lover but I had no idea that dogs originated with the dingo, very interesting stuff.
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Links to More on the Dingo
Sanctuaries and more
- Jirrahlinga Dingo Conservation Centre
- With white man's encroachment deeper into the wilderness area, often accompanied by his domestic dogs, the conservation of the Dingo as a species cannot be left to nature.
- The Australian Dingo
- Did you know that the Australian dingo is facing extinction in the near future? Sad but true, and not many Australians care. The wild dogs are in dire need of an image overhaul.
- Bargo Dingo Sanctuary
- The Dingo Sanctuary is a registered charity at Bargo, on the south western outskirts of Sydney. The Sanctuary maintains a colony of Dingoes for public education and Dingo conservation.
About Susanna Duffy
Lensmaster susannaduffy has been a member since September 25 2006, has rated 4,141 lenses, favorited 164, and has created 213 lenses from scratch. This member's top-ranked page is "Christmas in Australia". See all my lenses
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Thanks very much for dropping by to read about the Australian Dingo, a superb creature threatened with extinction.You're more than welcome to leave a note in the guest book above and, if you're a member of Squidoo, you can also rate this lens :)
It's all much appreciated, Susanna
For more pages like this, my lens collection is at Susanna's Lensography
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