Dingo

Dingoes eat meat.

They catch rabbits, kangaroos and wallabies. Sometimes they eat lizards, birds and bugs too.

Dingoes are meat-eaters that take whatever food they can find. Mammals make up most of their diet, especially rabbits, kangaroos, wallabies and wombats. When wild food is scarce, they may catch farm animals, which makes them unpopular with many farmers. They also eat reptiles, birds and insects.

A dingo often hunts alone, especially at night, but dingoes join together into larger packs to hunt bigger game. By eating rabbits and feral pigs, dingoes help keep these farm pests down.

Dingoes are opportunistic carnivores. Animal Diversity Web reports that mammals make up about 60 percent of the Australian diet, with birds and reptiles making up the rest, and that small animals, especially the introduced European rabbit, dominate; kangaroos, wallabies, sheep and calves are taken at times.

They often forage alone at night but form packs to hunt larger game. The Australian Museum notes that they help suppress rabbits, feral pigs and other pests, but that when native prey is scarce they take livestock. It also reports the idea that competition from dingoes contributed to the extinction of the thylacine on the mainland.

Dingoes hardly ever bark.

They howl instead, mostly at night. A howl can call the pack together or tell other dingoes to keep away.

Dingoes rarely bark. They howl, especially at night, to call pack members or to warn other dingoes to stay away. They also leave scent marks on objects to show where their territory ends.

Each dingo or pack keeps to its own clearly marked territory and defends it from other dingoes. Young adults often live alone outside the breeding season but may team up to hunt large animals. Other dingoes live in steady packs of 3 to 12.

Dingoes rarely bark; howling, mostly at night, gathers pack members and warns off intruders. Territories are clearly defined, rarely left and defended against other dingoes, with scent-rubbing, feces and urine marking boundaries; territory can be shared when dingoes join to hunt.

Animal Diversity Web describes young adults as often solitary outside the mating season and stable packs of 3 to 12 animals with varying social interaction. Dominant pairs tend to mate for life.

Scientists still argue about what a dingo is.

Some say it is its own kind of animal. Others say it is a very old kind of dog. Everyone agrees dingoes are special to Australia.

Scientists disagree about how to name the dingo. Over the years it has been called Canis dingo, Canis lupus dingo and Canis familiaris dingo. Some scientists have proposed that it is a species of its own. Scientists at the Australian Museum think it is a wild-living population of a very old breed of domestic dog.

Whatever its name, the biggest danger to dingoes today is mixing with other pet and farm dogs, which slowly changes pure dingoes. In some areas dingoes are also controlled because they take livestock.

The dingo's taxonomy has been disputed since it was first described by European scientists in 1792. Names used include Canis dingo, Canis antarticus, Canis lupus dingo, Canis familiaris and Canis familiaris dingo. Some scientists have proposed recognizing Canis dingo again as a full species; Australian Museum researchers, reviewing morphological, genetic and ecological data, conclude instead that it is a feral population of an ancient breed of domestic dog, while stressing that this does not reduce its ecological and cultural importance.

Animal Diversity Web reports that dingoes are not considered threatened, are protected only in national parks and reserves, and are controlled as pests elsewhere. Both sources identify interbreeding with other domestic dogs as the main threat to pure dingoes.