Where does the wild dog dingo live? Dingo (Australian wild dog). animal habitat
Dingo is a secondarily feral domestic dog, a representative of the Canine family from the genus of wolves. The dingo is one of Australia's most famous animals. The dingo dog has a mysterious origin and is highly intelligent. In this article, you can see photos and descriptions of dingoes, learn a lot of new and interesting things about the life of this Australian wild dog.
Dingo looks like ordinary dog with a good physique. But broad head, erect ears, fluffy a long tail and large fangs distinguish the dingo animal from ordinary dog. In terms of physique, this wild dog of Australia resembles a hound, so the dingo looks very athletic.
Dingo looks like a strong dog of medium size. The height at the withers of the Australian dingo varies between 50-70 cm, with a weight of 10 to 25 kg. The length of the body, taking into account the head, is from 90 to 120 cm, and the length of the tail is 25-40 cm. Females are smaller than males. The Australian dingo looks much larger than the Asian one.
Dingo looks quite fluffy, because his short fur is very thick. Usually a dingo dog has a red or reddish-brown color, but its muzzle and belly are always much lighter.
Occasionally, an almost black, white or spotted dingo can be found. In addition, the dingo animal often interbreeds with domestic dogs, but such individuals are considered hybrids. In addition, purebred individuals do not know how to bark, but can only howl and growl like a wolf.
Where does the dingo dog live?
The dingo dog lives in Australia, it is widespread almost throughout the mainland. The largest number of these animals occurs in the northern, western and central parts of Australia. also in small quantities the dingo dog lives in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Borneo, Indonesia, Southeast China, Malaysia and New Guinea).
The dingo is an Australian animal that is predominantly nocturnal. In Australia, the dingo lives mainly in eucalyptus thickets, semi-deserts and forests. The dingo dog lives in a den, which usually settles in a cave, tree roots, empty burrows, and most often not far from a body of water. In Asia, the dingo lives next to humans, as it feeds on waste.
What does a dingo eat and how does a dingo dog live?
The dingo feeds primarily on small mammals, including rabbits, but also preys on kangaroos and wallabies. In addition, the dingo feeds on birds, reptiles, insects and carrion. When mass cattle breeding began on the mainland, the wild dog of Australia began to attack him.
Dingo raids livestock became the reason that farmers began to destroy dingoes. In Asia, the dingo feeds on a variety of food waste. The Asian dingo also feeds on snakes, lizards and rats. By the way, in Asia, people eat dingo meat for food.
The dingo dog lives most often alone, with the exception of the mating season. However, dingoes can gather in groups to hunt large prey. Usually a flock of dingoes consists of 3-12 individuals, in which the dominant pair rules. The laws of the pack of dingoes are the same as those of wolves - a strict hierarchy is observed in the pack. Each flock has its own hunting area, which it carefully guards.
The dingo has excellent eyesight and hearing, besides, the dingo animal is very smart, dexterous and quick-witted. The most main feature The nature of the dingo is extreme caution, which helps them successfully bypass traps and poisoned baits. Only jackals compete with this dog of Australia. Enemies for adult dingoes are crocodiles, for young individuals these are pythons, monitor lizards and large birds of prey.
In a flock where dingoes live, only the dominant pair can produce offspring. When another female breeds puppies, the dominant female kills them. All members of the flock take care of the cubs of the main pair. This Australian dog breeds puppies once a year. The animal dingo is monogamous. At Australian dingoes the mating season begins in March-April, in Asia it falls on August-September.
Animal dingo becomes capable of breeding offspring at the age of 1-3 years. The gestation period for this Australian dog is 3 months. Usually australian dog dingo gives birth to 6-8 dingo puppies. Dingo puppies are born blind and covered with hair. Both parents take care of the babies.
At the age of 1 month, dingo puppies are already leaving the den and soon the female stops feeding milk. By the age of 2 months, dingo puppies finally leave the den and live with adults. Up to 3 months, the mother and other members of the pack help feed the puppies and bring them prey. By 4 months, dingo puppies are already independent and, together with adults, go hunting. In the wild, a dingo dog lives up to 10 years, in captivity up to 13 years.
In the natural environment, the dingo animal and domestic dogs often interbreed, so hybrids predominate in the wild. The only exceptions are those dingoes that live in protected areas in national parks Australia. Hybrids formed from crossing the Australian dingo and domestic dogs are more dangerous, as they are more aggressive. In addition, non-purebred dingoes breed 2 times a year, in contrast to purebred dingoes, in which offspring are bred once a year.
There are many versions and legends around the origin of the dingo dog breed. Some argue that the dingo animal was brought to Australia by settlers from Asia. Others believe that the wild dog dingo is descended from domestic Chinese dogs. And according to the third version, it is said that the Australian dingo is a descendant of Indian wolves. Also, the dingo animal is known to us from R. Fraerman's story, entitled "Wild Dog Dingo, or The Tale of First Love", which was written in 1939.
The history of the dingo dog is full of mysteries and mysteries. The most common version of the origin of the dingo dog breed is the one in which it was brought from Asia. The dingo dog was brought to the mainland in boats by fishermen who sailed from Asia more than 5 thousand years ago. The dingo dog breed spread very quickly and became faithful assistant for the Australian Aborigines. Dingo dogs guarded the dwelling of man and helped him on the hunt. However, over time, people left the faithful dogs, then they became wild.
When the owners abandoned the dingo, they had no choice but to develop the territory of the mainland. Living conditions were very favorable. Dingoes soon spread throughout the entire continent, including the adjacent islands. This dog of Australia is the main mammalian predator of the mainland and plays important role in the ecology of the continent. Australian dingoes regulate the number of herbivores and rabbits of the continent.
In the 19th century, Australia began to actively develop sheep farming. Since dingoes hunted sheep and caused damage to the farm, they began to shoot them, poison them with poisons and catch them in traps. But already in the 1880s, in order to protect areas of sheep pastures and protect livestock from dingoes, the construction of a "dog fence" was begun. Later, separate sections of the fence were connected together, so a barrier was formed, which was interrupted only on the highway.
Now the fence has a length of more than 5 km and separates the arid part of Australia from the fertile. The fence is maintained annually, and along it there are patrols that restore damage to the fence and destroy animals that have penetrated the fence.
It is believed that purebred dingoes do not attack people, but there are exceptions to any rule. Cases of an Australian dingo attacking a person are extremely rare. One such case in Australia in 1980 was the death of a nine-week-old girl who was dragged away by a dingo.
Keeping these dogs at home is not accepted, and in some countries it is completely forbidden to keep dingoes as a pet. But some people still give birth to these animals. They claim that the Australian dingo is an excellent and unpretentious dog that is loyal and gets along well with other dogs living in the house.
In captivity, the dingo animal does not take root well and often runs away, although some Australians manage to tame them. Of course, it is best to tame a dingo as a puppy; it is almost impossible to tame adults. It should always be remembered that this dog of Australia is primarily a wild predator and can be quite unpredictable.
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The dingo is a re-feral dog unable to bark. Representatives of this species can only make growling sounds and howl. This is one of the oldest breeds, there is no reliable information about its origin, there are only a few hypotheses on this subject.
According to one version, the progenitors of wild dingoes are representatives crested dogs Chinese breed, according to another, traders and travelers from Asia brought them to Australia. If we talk about myths, then according to them, the dingo is a descendant descended from a mixture of pario dogs and wolves from India.
Considering that the Australian dingo dog was the only placental predator in the fauna of Australia before the arrival of Europeans, the theory of its introduction by Asian travelers looks the most plausible.
Having no competition and discovering a large number of food, species began to quickly assimilate and took root, feeding on small marsupials.
The ancestor of this animal is indian wolf, which was domesticated by humans, and then returned to the wild. Therefore, it is considered secondarily feral. However, there are a number of facts indicating that it was originally domestic, but due to wild crossings, it received a completely different disposition.
dingo extermination
In Australia, a cowardly and mean person is called a "dingo". This phenomenon is especially common among farmers whose enemies for a long time were wild dogs. In one night, a family of 4-12 individuals could destroy more than 20 sheep. Due to such circumstances, the brutal extermination of dingoes began.
Over time, the number of wild dogs only increased, creating real threat housekeeping. Despite regular raids in the vicinity of their plots, farmers could not reliably protect themselves from the attack of predators.
it led to the construction of a fence, total length which was equal to a third of the length of the Great Wall of China. Its fragments have survived to the present day and stretch across a third of the Australian continent.
The extermination was stopped with the help of conservation organizations, who proved the importance of wild dogs in the fauna of Australia. Dingoes have firmly occupied a niche in regulating the population of many animals, including the rabbit, which is a real scourge for Australian farmers.
Description of the breed and habitat
The animal lives not only in Australia, but also in Asia. The list of countries where the dingo dog lives is quite extensive:
International kennel unions do not give a description of the dingo, but there is appearance definition. The head of the animal is massive, and the muzzle looks like a fox. The jaws are powerful, the ears are triangular, erect. A medium-sized dry and muscular neck is framed by a fluffy wool collar. A deep sternum and a flat strong back, and the tail has a saber shape and is covered with thick hair.
The weight of a wild dog in Australia ranges from 10 to 19 kg, and the height reaches 47-67 cm. The fur is thick and short with a red tint. In the wild, there are dingoes with a black color, they are classified as hybrids. According to some assumptions, this is the result of crossing with german shepherds. Purebred individuals never bark, but are only able to growl and howl.
Lifestyle
Dingo is a nocturnal animal. Dry thickets of eucalyptus trees and forest edges are the main habitat of these dogs.
They equip their lairs in the mountains or caves, not far from water bodies.
Among the enemies of the animal can be identified:
- jackals;
- dogs brought by Europeans;
- birds of prey (pose a danger to small puppies).
Animals live in families, the number of which starts from 12 individuals. Families have a strict hierarchy, its top is reached only by the strongest representative, able to keep the rest of the pack in fear.
Only one dominant pair breeds in a flock. Litter appears once a year, and the number of puppies does not exceed eight. Both parents look after the offspring. Over time, all members of the pack bring prey to the pups.
Food
The main food for a dog is small mammals. In their natural habitat, their diet consists of kangaroos, reptiles, rabbits and carrion. The predator does not disdain crayfish, fish or chickens.
There have been cases of dog hunting in Thailand on lizards and rats. Some individuals prefer to feast on scraps from the human table, settling near the boundaries of farms, settlements or landfills.
domesticated individuals fed meat, which makes up half of the entire diet of a predator. The rest of the food is fruit, dairy products and porridge. Dingo at home eats almost everything, but you need to monitor the presence of a bowl of clean water. It must be changed at least twice a day. It is important to provide food with zinc content, which is necessary for an animal living in captivity.
Dingo training
Dingo is not accidentally called a wild dog. It is very difficult to tame and raise an animal that is suspicious of a person. Heavy character and lack of loyalty is what the owner of this predator is at risk of facing.
Education of the beast is necessary start at puppyhood, taking the baby from the parents when the dog is much more pliable. With due patience, it can be tamed.
Dingo is a predator living in a flock, where leadership is very pronounced. When taming a dog, it is necessary to put it in its place from the very beginning. early age. adult not amenable to training, with extremely rare exceptions.
However, taking into the house little puppy and with due patience, one can bring up good friend and family member. But it is important to remember that a predator always remains a wild animal, unpredictable and dangerous.
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The dingo is a secondarily feral domestic dog that lives primarily in Australia. Also, small populations of these animals have survived in Southeast Asia (Thailand, China, Laos, Borneo, the Philippines and New Guinea). There is an assumption that the Dingo is the descendant of a domesticated wolf, which is common on the Hindustan Peninsula.
Dingo looks like a dog of good build and medium size. Its height at the withers reaches 50 cm, body length is about 100 cm, average weight 10-16 kg. The physique of these dogs resemble hounds. Square muzzle, small erect ears and fluffy saber tail. The dingo has short, thick, reddish-brown or black fur. Although gray-white Dingo dogs also live in the southeast of Australia. Australian Dingoes are significantly larger than Asian Dingoes, and males are larger than females. Dingoes don't bark, they howl like wolves.
Dingo was brought to Australia by the first settlers. Here runaway or abandoned dogs received excellent conditions for habitation. There was a lot of game on the continent, and there were no enemies capable of competing with the Dingo.
Photo: wildness in all appearance - wild Dingo.
Photo: the corpse of a shark will also be eaten.
Dingo dogs are nocturnal animals. In Australia, they settled throughout the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe continent. They live on the edges of moist forests, in dry thickets of eucalyptus trees, as well as in semi-deserts located in the depths of the mainland. Dingoes make their lairs in caves, empty holes or among the roots of trees. They usually live near water bodies. Dingo hunt rabbits, kangaroos and wallabies. Birds, reptiles and insects are sometimes eaten. It happens that Dingo is slaughtered by farm animals, but this is rare. Basically, they are quite enough to feed wild animals. In the wild of Australia, these dogs were the only large mammals discovered during the discovery of the continent. Basically, marsupials live there, which are successfully hunted by Dingoes.
Video: All about animals - Dingo
Video: Dingo - Wild Dog at War Trailer
The wild dog dingo is a one of a kind example of a secondarily feral dog. Feral is not the same as homeless, wandering. Dingoes came to Australia along with man, but freed themselves from his patronage and became a full-fledged wild subspecies.
Why dingoes went wild is not known for certain. But we can recall that the union of a man and a dog (more precisely, a man of an oriole) developed on the basis of a joint hunt for big game. Domesticated animals also helped protect human settlements from large wild predators. In Australia, by the time the ancestors of the dingo appeared there, large game animals had already been knocked out, and the remaining land predators (such as the marsupial wolf) did not pose a serious threat to either humans or dogs. On the other hand, the whole continent was full of tasty game, slow-moving blunt-marsupials of small and medium size, which dogs could successfully hunt without human help.
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Australia(Australian Federation) - a state in southern hemisphere located on the Australian mainland and the island of Tasmania.
Capital– Canberra
Largest cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide
Form of government- A constitutional monarchy
Territory- 7,692,024 km 2 (6th in the world)
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Official language– Australian English
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Currency- Australian dollar
Having separated from people, red dogs quickly conquered all of Australia, along the way completely displacing their clumsy competitors, the marsupial wolf of the marsupial devil (who survived only in Tasmania, where the dingoes did not reach). The aliens conquered almost all the landscapes of the continent, from tropical rainforests to arid semi-deserts.
While the newly-minted super-predator hunted rabbits or even kangaroos, with former owner there were no problems. They began with the arrival of sheep in Australia. Dingo willingly included them to your own menu, and not only lambs, but also adult animals. A domestic sheep is not able to either run away from a dingo or resist, so dogs that have seized upon the herd often killed much more animals than they could eat. It is clear that this brought the righteous wrath of the sheep breeders to the dingo. Red dogs were outlawed, they were exterminated by everyone accessible ways: shot all year round at every opportunity, they were caught with traps, poisoned with poisons.
Since the 1840s, the construction of mesh fences began, which by the 1960s combined a single system, stretching in total for more than 5600 kilometers and fenced off the fertile southeast of Australia from the rest of the continent. But, despite the regular patching of the fence and the destruction of holes and burrows, wild dogs today live on both sides of it.
Australia's destiny is to build fences from invasive species animals brought by people and excessively bred on the Green Continent. Along with the dingo, the company also included rabbits and camels.
Having passed the quale life, red dogs quickly restored the social structure that is characteristic of many wild canids, including the ancestors of all wolf dogs. Dingoes live in small family groups, which are based on a dominant pair. All puppies that appear in the group are the children of these two individuals, the remaining members of the group (the grown-up cubs of the main pair, sometimes the brothers and sisters of the dominant male and female) remain without offspring, unless they leave the pack and find a territory and partners for themselves to create their own family . The younger puppies of the main couple are taken care of by all members of the group.
Dingoes are tireless hunters, capable of running great distances across the desert. Sometimes they play with each other almost like domestic dogs, but, unlike the latter, they practically do not bark, but often howl.
For sheep farmers, red dogs were and remain enemy number one. Therefore, in most parts of the country, dingoes treat man as a sap and try not to catch his eye. But where dingoes cease to be afraid of people, people have to be afraid of dingoes. In 1980, Australia was shocked by the death of Azaria Chamberlain, a two-month-old girl who was dragged from a camping tent by a wild dog right in front of her mother. Cases of attacks by "lured" animals on people (albeit without tragic outcomes) were noted there before.
As a result, the current status of the dingo is paradoxical. Farmers and special services created by the authorities of the sheep-breeding states continue a hopeless war with red dogs, trying, if not to exterminate them, then at least to restrain their growth in numbers. At the same time, dingoes are considered as a protected species in national parks and reserves.
The future of the dingo is indeed alarming. Ine because of guns or fences, and because of the mass crossing with domestic and stray dogs, which erodes the dingo gene pool and, as a result, their characteristic appearance. About 90% of wild dogs living on the eastern (most populated and developed) coast of Australia are hybrids of dingoes and domestic dogs different breeds. Such hybrids are not uncommon in the rest of the country, with the exception of national parks and sparsely populated areas. This process worries not only scientists and defenders wildlife: hybrid dogs more prolific (because they breed not once, but twice a year) and usually more aggressive.
Titles: dingo, Australian dingo.
area: The dingo is found everywhere in Australia, currently most numerous in the northern, western and central parts of it. A few populations have survived in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar), southeast China, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, the Philippines and New Guinea.
Description: Dingo in its appearance is a cross between a wolf and a well-built medium-sized domestic dog. Sometimes the dingo is described as a squat, somewhat plump fox, for others, with its physique, the dingo resembles a hound. At the dingo slender body, strong straight legs of medium length, fluffy saber tail. hairline thick, but not long, rather soft. The dingo has a large, heavy and proportional head with a blunt nose, attentive eyes, wide at the base, and small erect ears.
Males are significantly larger than females. Asian dingoes are smaller than their Australian relatives, apparently due to a diet poor in proteins.
Color: The coat is mostly sandy-brown or reddish-brown in color with a grayish tint. Many individuals have lighter markings on the belly, tail, and legs. It is found in the south-east of Australia (although rarely) a gray-white breed. Occasionally there are individuals of almost black color, white and piebald. Black colored dingoes with light limbs (like the color of the Rottweiler) are considered hybrids with domestic dogs, probably German Shepherds.
The size: Height at withers 47-67 cm, body length with head 86-122 cm, tail length 26-38 cm. Average length body of males 92 cm, females - 88.5 cm.
The weight: 9.60-19 kg, rarely - up to 24 kg. Dingo males weigh more than females, their weight fluctuates between 11.8 and 19.4 kg, females between 9.6 and 16.0 kg.
Lifespan: Up to 10 years in nature and up to 13 years in captivity.
Habitat: Their main habitats in Australia are the edges of moist forests, dry eucalyptus thickets, arid semi-deserts in the depths of the mainland. In Asia, dingoes keep close to human habitation and feed on garbage.
Enemies: The main enemies of dingoes are jackals and dogs introduced by Europeans. Puppies are preyed upon by large birds of prey.
Food: Approximately 60% of the diet of Australian dingoes is made up of medium-sized mammals. They hunt kangaroos, wallabies and rabbits; to a lesser extent they feed on reptiles, insects and carrion. In small quantities, chickens and other birds, fish, crabs and other crustaceans can be found in their diet. Some individuals in Thailand have been observed hunting lizards and rats.
With the beginning of mass breeding of cattle, the dingo began to attack him, which led to the destruction of wild dogs by farmers. Although it turns out that livestock make up only 4% of the dingo's diet, these wild dogs often slaughter sheep without eating them. In Asia, dingoes usually feed on food waste: rice, raw fruit, small amounts of fish and chicken meat; less often they catch lizards and rats.
Behavior: Dingoes are predominantly nocturnal animals. They are smart and agile. Their characteristic feature is extreme caution and distrust of everything new, which helps them to successfully avoid traps and poisoned baits.
Wild dogs mostly hunt alone or in pairs. But family flocks of five or six individuals are not uncommon. This is usually a mother with a brood.
Dingoes are passionate hunters and tireless pursuers. Following the trail of the intended victim, wild dogs can chase it for hours at a speed of up to 55 km / h, passing up to 10-20 km per day.
Kangaroos often show desperate and sometimes successful resistance to dingoes: they can rip open their belly with their claws, drown (if the attack takes place in water), push them off a cliff if a dangerous meeting takes place on rocks. So, mountain kangaroos, fleeing from dogs, stand on the edge of a sheer cliff and sometimes one by one fall into the abyss, where dingoes crash to death on stones.
With the development of sheep farming in Australia, dingoes began to prey on them in some areas. Lamb came to their taste, and for many years sheep breeders have been waging a grueling war against these predators. Sheep in Australia tend to graze without shepherds, and are often guarded strong dogs. Dingoes will retreat if they see the superiority of dogs, but they can also tear the dog to shreds if their forces prevail. Dogs do the same if they manage to cut off the dingo from the pack. Dingo fights fiercely with dogs, and a bitten and defeated dingo can pretend to be dead, and as soon as the dogs leave him, switching to other members of the pack, he tries to slip away.
It is believed that purebred dingoes do not attack people. In captivity, adult dogs usually retain a quarrelsome vicious disposition and strive to attack anyone who turns up under their arm. Dingo puppies are very trainable, but become quite independent with age. But at the beginning of the mating season, dingoes become almost uncontrollable. That is why keeping dingoes as pets is prohibited.
