#Australian wild dogs series

Undisputedly, the dingo is Australia’s wild dog and top-order predator. Finally, we propose that future studies critically examine genes under selection in the dingo and employ the genome from a wild canid for comparison.Ĭanids are among the most widely distributed carnivores, with at least one species present on every continent except Antarctica. Further, we advocate that future morphological, behavioural and genetic studies should focus on including genetically pure Alpine and Desert dingoes and not dingo-dog hybrids. We suggest that incorporating ancient DNA data into the debate concerning dingo origins will be pivotal to understanding the evolutionary history of the canid. However, accumulated evidence does not definitively show that the dingo was ever domesticated and additional focused research is required. These policies are based on an incomplete understanding of the evolutionary history of the canid and assume the dingo is feralized. Western Australian Government policy is currently being revised to allow the widespread killing of the Australian dingo. Finally, we consider cellular and molecular level traits including hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic position of dingoes, metabolic genes that appear to be under positive selection and the potential for micronutrient compensation by the gut microbiome. We then discuss how differences between taming and domestication may influence the organismal traits of skull morphometrics, brain and size, seasonal breeding, and sociability. First, we review the movement of dingo ancestors into Australia. Untamed canids are predicted to be marked by a signature of unconscious selection whereas feral animals are hypothesized to be marked by signatures of both unconscious and artificial selection. We consider wild animals that were formerly tamed as untamed and those wild animals that were formerly domesticated as feralized. We consider a canid that has been unconsciously selected as a tamed animal and the endpoint of methodical or what we now call artificial selection as a domesticated animal.

#Australian wild dogs series

The goal of this article is to place the discussion onto a theoretical framework, highlight what is currently known about dingo origins and taxonomy and then make a series of experimentally testable organismal, cellular and biochemical predictions that we propose can focus future research. A lingering controversy is whether the dingo has been tamed and has now reverted to its ancestral wild state or whether its ancestors were domesticated and it now resides on the continent as a feral dog. The Australian dingo continues to cause debate amongst Aboriginal people, pastoralists, scientists and the government in Australia.