The Latin name Canis lupus dingo which means they are considered a subspecies of the wolf – Canis lupus. While dog like in many aspects of their behaviour, in captivity they remain aloof, more like the relationship many people describe with cats. It has been proposed that the dogs either arrived with early sea farers 3,500 years ago or walked across a land bridge much earlier, anywhere between 4,500 and 18,000 years ago. The alpine dingoes of eastern Victoria grow a second coat in winter, just like a fleecy jumper, and they shed this again in summer. Hybridisation with domestic dogs is a threat to their existence as a species. Naturally they live in packs of up to ten with a dominant female and her mate as pack leaders. They hunt kangaroos and other prey cooperatively as a pack. While a threatened species, conflict with stock farmers can see dingoes legally controlled. Wild dingoes make wolf-like bark-howl calls but some domesticated dingoes do learn to bark. Our dingoes meet their keepers with a melody of howls every morning. Once a year, females typically give birth to around five offspring after a gestation period of around two months. Baby dingoes are called pups. At 6 to 8 months, the pups are fully grown and ready to separate from their mother. At 3 years, they find a mate and often mate for life.
Quick Facts
Diet
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Colour
Vary from beige , tan, cream to black
Weight
10-15kgs
Lifespan
7-10 in the wild but up to 16 in captivity
Predators
Humans, crocodiles, birds of prey take pups.
Conservation Status
Endangered
Distribution
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Habitat
psum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.