I'm watching a show on the ABC now on dingo's on the farms around Kosie national park and they are talking about the interbreeding between the dog and dingo's.
Everybodys worried about it and I think that it would be a shame to loose pure dingo blood BUT its been going on for centries. They have been breeding with aborigional camp dogs long before we came. I saw alot of dingo type dogs in Timor and if left alone I think the feral dog will develope into the dingo type, which is what a natural dog is. After all they were bought over by the aborigionals semi domesticated and developed into dingo type we see now. What are your thoughts?

You would be right Bakes , but I cant see the conservation commision leaving them alone. I dont think breeding with the camp dogs diluted the blood lines as most if not all the camp dogs were domesticated dingos anyway. Dingos are pretty unique, apparently the dont stink when they get wet ,although thats only what I read somewhere and theres not to many dogs that dont bark, I can only think of one other breed and that the basenji.
On another note did you know we have 2 models of ferral cat up here? (and thats NOT dead or alive)

I did see a doco on cats that tried to figure out if cats came on the first fleet or via Indonesia. The boffins thought that because the northern cats were mostly of a sandy colour and southern more of a dark tabby look, that we had two waves of ocupation starting from different parts of Australia. DNA testing proved however that they all came from Europe. Interestingly most feral cats around base here are a light sandy colour.

I had a biologist living next door, he told me there were the standard moggies but the Macassan traders brought cats with them when they were ripping off the locals a few centurys ago. Apparently there were still some surviving around the place somewhere but they have probably interbreed so im buggered how you could tell them apart now. Saw some pure breed ones in the Phillipines when I was last there, I wanted to bring one back so I coud enter it into the Darwin royal show, sure to win best of breed even if it was half dead and full of mange

Thoughts is it?
I find it funny how the introduced Dingo enjoys
native status. I suppose if they don't bother
the greenies/beatnicks/members of the Dingo
presavation society, and they've been here a fair while, that helps.
I don't "hate" them, but I've shot more Dingos
than I'VE SEEN feral cats. Seen more Quolls too.
These animal shows on TV are something else.
I tuned in to "learn" about Dingos, and the
voiceover went- " Don't worry about your baby, mother rock wallaby, Mr Dingo is off to eat some
feral rats" etc. And all this at Ayres Rock.
One boffin reckons the only pure breds left
are at Frazer, but ALL i've shot looked very
Dingoie to me.
As for the smarts of the Dingo, fair bit of legend there. One of my bosses in the NT got one
with his dicky little 38 S&W revolver. Said he
was having lunch in his ute and this fella came
up to pee on the wheel.
I've been having smoko in the shooting wagon
and saw one about 25 yards away. He/she got away because it was too close and when I moved
for the rifle, me stupid dog started a jig
and scared it off. (Now I park further away
from anywhere.) Brag time, my longest shot was
about 400 yards away. 300 H&H with witnesses,
none drunk. Took a week to find him even though
he was right where he copped it.

Bakes, where to draw lines for conservation is the diffiuclt question as you said,since who knows what breeding went on where at what stage.

The easy one for the greenies is the 'before the white man came' line.

Anyone who bases any experience of 'what a dingo looks like' by comparing it to the red or yellow type, will run into problems with the wild dogs in the QLD rainforest- almost black with lighter or almost white tips, larger than what I have seen of the normal desert dingo and of heritage possibly even more complicated. Not sure what the biologists have to say about that.

The easiest way to draw the line for me is...

If two different animals have a fuck and produce fertile offspring, they aren't different animals.

And even if they are. Too bad. They are going to fuck anyway.

Put some in a zoo to remind the kids of 'what they should look like' and shoot anything else if it makes a pest of itself.


Karl.

We have a big black dingo on base, he's been there about 2 years now and we are only now seeing dogs the same colour as him. He's a very impressive dog, I got a good look at him when I was laying in the grass doing dog work and he came up my scent cone (and no it wasn't painfull, Easy!!)He stopped about 10 meters away. He was a little bigger than average but very dingo in type. All the feral dogs I've seen in magazines seem to be "going back" to the dingo type. Thats old mother nature at work since that is the size and body shape that works.

I agree Karl, if they can produce viable offspring than they arn't that different. A couple of differences are that dingo bitches come on heat once a year and the lack of barking. I wouldn't mind betting that a dog pack that was placed in the wild with no contact with humans would cease barking (since it was not a natural behaviour in the first place)and the bitches would come into season once a year (given time to adjust and several generations down the track of course) as perhaps this is a way not to over populate an area.

Are there any theories as to why dogs started barking?

Interesting Bakes. I don't know much about dogs but assume you are saying since they are all the same species,(with possibly a common ancestor?) that the dingo could be recreated from any dog stock or at least develope dingo characteristics under the same circumstances-eg left in the outback for ages.

Karl.

Proberly, take out the human element in breeding then they will change back to a more natural shape. ie the sloping back of a shepard wouldn't work well for the dog in the wild, all natural dogs have a straight back. If you look at the wolf and coyote, they have a similar shape and coat colour although the wolf can throw diferent colours as well (don't know about the coyote). Long pointed muzzel (wolf,coyote,dingo) holds more scent receptors than a short one like the boxer, so a natural dog would have a better sence of smell. Floppy ears would not hear as well, coat colour would reflect the enviroment etc. The dogs that didn't have the right things needed to survive would die out and those that did would get to breed and spred the right genetics. All this would take time. Thats just my theory, but it would be an interesting experiment.

Boghossian,
I've read that the first humans realised that a barking dogs could help them (as a warning of wild animals or enemys) that they encouraged it. The dog being a smart little bastard soon realised that it was a wanted behaviour and it went from there. The ones that didn't bark or yip were not kept and the behaviour was passed down by the ones that could.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bakes:
Interestingly most feral cats around base here are a light sandy colour.

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Would prob be a fair sort of camo colour around
katherine?

The dirt around Katherine is red but once the dry starts and very thing dries off they would blend in well. Doesnt help them against the snakes however. I got called out to the SGTs mess one day when one of the SGTs found a snake outside his block. Turned out to be a large olive python with a lump in the middle. That lump was very "kitten" in shape

Government sites re feral cats say that ginger is the predominant colour in arid or desert areas. Some authorities (vets) state that they(cats) all revert to ginger after a few generations in the wild. Most that I've seen around inland rubbish dumps have been ginger and in contrast to that I've not seen a ginger one on the properties I hunt on, every other colour but. I live in a city and there are ferals (ginger) in our suburb.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bakes:
Turned out to be a large olive python with a lump in the middle. That lump was very "kitten" in shape

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But I guess you've seen them Tindal rats, big
as them base cats? ;-)