Dingo Facts
Dingo Facts
1. Dingos are a dog-like wolf. They have a long muzzle, erect ears and strong claws. They usually have a ginger coat and most have white markings on their feet, tail tip and chest. Their bushy tail is 25-37 cm long.
2. Eye-catching, curious and sometimes dangerous, the dingo is a common sight across Australia.
3. The dingo-Australia’s only native dog-is thought to have descended from a family of wild Asian dogs.
4. Introduced to Australia about 4000-6000 years ago, dingoes probably found their way to Australia through trading between Aboriginal people and Indonesians fishing in Austalian waters.
5. Dingos are carnivores and prey on a variety of animals, ranging in size from insects to rodents, lizards to geese, wallabies and kangaroos to buffalos. Packs of dingos have greater success hunting larger animals like kangaroos whereas individuals are better at hunting smaller prey like rabbits.
6. The dingo is thought to have contributed to the mainland extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) through increased competition for food.
7. Unable to bark, the dingo howls at night to keep the family group together and to warn others to stay away.
8. Watch out-dingoes can bite. A dingo is a wild animal and can be dangerous when provoked.
9. A pure-bred adult dingo, standing more than 60cm high and weighing about 15kg, is slightly smaller than a German shepherd.
10. Dingoes are naturally lean, with large ears permanently pricked and tails with a white tip. Although mainly sandy-yellow in colour, some dingoes are black and tan. A dingo’s colour is determined by where it lives. Golden yellow dingoes are found in sandy areas while darker black and tan dingoes are found in forests.
11. Dingos are under threat from interbreeding with domestic dogs. There are very few pure-bred dingos left in Australia. They may also be persecuted by farmers as they are sometimes seen as a threat to livestock or accidentally poisoned when they eat baits left for feral dogs.
12. Dingos arrived in Australia some 3500-4000 years ago and eventually occupied all of the Australian mainland including some islands except Tasmania. While dingos belong to the same family as dogs, there are differences. Dingos do not bark, they only breed once a year and they lack the distinctive ‘dog smell’ of domestic dogs.
13. Their joints and spine are extremely flexible which make these dogs good climbers, runners, jumpers, etc.
14. Has a short dense coat, gold or reddish in color with white markings on face and chest
15. Females have 1 estrous cycle per year. If not impregnated it will repeat every 8-12 weeks, give birth to around 5 pups at a time.
16. At one time or another been classified as domestic, feral and wild.
17. The dingo bark is short monosyllabic but they howl with at least ten different variations Growling is their main form of vocalization.
18. Their eyes are more light-reflective than those of domestic dogs and glow bright green in low light.
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