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Land Animals Australia

Dingo

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Dingos are about 50 centimetres tall and about 120 centimetres long. Most dingos have coats of short yellow - brown hair but there are cream coloured dingos as well as black and tan. A dingo has a bushy tail and pointed ears.

Dingos eat almost anything. They hunt reptiles and mammals and will eat insects. They also eat dead animals and some plants. When Europeans arrived in Australia the dingos hunted and killed the sheep and rabbits that the settlers brought to Australia.

In the wild, a dingo usually lives alone but may live in a small family group. Each dingo has its own territory but it may share territory with other dingos. Dingos don't live or hunt in packs but sometimes do hunt with other dogs to catch large prey.

Dingos mate between May and July (winter) and the pups are born 63 days later. The mother gives birth to her pups in a den. A litter of pups is usually about 5. Both the male and the female care for their pups. They catch food and bring it to the pups until they are about 3 weeks old. Then the pups leave the den and are taught to hunt by their parents. The parents will still catch the prey for their young but they leave it somewhere near the den for the pups to hunt down. Dingos mate for life.

Some scientists think that the dingo is related to wild dogs that live in parts of Asia. Dingos have been in Australia for about 3500 years. Dingos may have been brought to the country by Australian aborigines who traded with Indian traders. Aborigines kept dingos in their camps and the dogs hunted with the men.

Related weblinks -
• Find out more about dingos here - http://www.wwwins.net.au/dingofarm/001.html
• More here - http://www.zip.com.au/~merigal/dingo.html