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Dingo
Dingo - Canis lupus
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Almost everyone knows that Dingoes are the wild dogs of Australia. What is less commonly known is that haven't been in this country all that long.
It was once thought that Dingoes came here with the first Aboriginals, about 40,000 years ago, but that doesn't appear to be the case. It is now thought that Dingoes were transported to Australia with later human settlers, perhaps not more than 5000-7000 years ago. If Dingoes had been in Australia for much longer they would probably have found their way to Tasmania as that island only became separated from the mainland about 10,000 years ago. The fact that there have never been Dingoes in Tasmania is part of the evidence for the current opinion about its arrival time.
The ancestor of the Dingo is probably the Indian Wolf, an animal that became partially domesticated and travelled with the hunter-gatherer people that first populated Australia.
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