Dingo

Dingo
ディンゴ
Character Data
Romaji		Dingo
Debut		Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Canis lupus dingo
Distribution		Australia
Diet		Carnivore
Avg. Lifespan		10 years
Read More		Dingo
Conservation

Dingo​

Nexon Game

Dingo is a type of mammalian Friend that first appeared in the original Kemono Friends mobile game.

Appearance

Dingo's hair is mostly smooth and a light ginger colour, darker towards the bottom where it becomes slightly spiked. The darker colour continues surrounding her pointed ears, and is present on the ears themselves. Her ponytail is the same darker colour, tipped with white. She has orange eyes and a mostly smooth tail which is light ginger with a white stripe and a darker stripe and tip. She has an off-white fur collar with a blue bowtie, and wears a dark orange waistcoat over a white ruffled blouse. Her light ginger and white suit jacket is cut short in the front, and has long coattails in the back. Her trousers are the same colour as her jacket, and have large fur cuffs at the bottom. She wears white gloves and dark orange heeled shoes.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2015	Nexon Game	↪ Minor character, playable character

In Real Life

Dingo at Glen Helen Gorge, NT, Australia. Photo by Jarrod Amoore, 2011.

The dingo (known as Canis familiaris, Canis familiaris dingo, Canis dingo, or Canis lupus dingo) is a species of feral dog endemic to Australia, having descended from domesticated ancestors. It has an ancient basal lineage dating back to around 3,500 years ago; the earliest-known dingo remains date to about 3,450 years ago, and were found in Western Australia. The closest genetic relative to the dingo is the New Guinea singing dog, which is itself considered a feral dog species.

It is a medium-sized canid with a lean, sturdy body built for speed, agility, and stamina. There are three main coat colorations; light ginger or tan, black and tan, and cream white. The skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to the body. The tail is flattish, tapering after mid-length and does not curve over the back. When walking, the dingo's rear foot steps in line with the front foot.

An example of a cream white coated Dingo. Photo from the Colorado State University Libraries.

A 20-year study of dingo populations concluded that, while primarily a carnivore, the dingo is ultimately an omnivorous species; they were found to have diets consisting of around 72.3% mammals, 18.8% birds, 3.3% vegetation (seeds), 1.8% reptiles, and 3.8% insects, fish, crabs, and frogs. Native mammal species taken by dingoes include possums, red kangaroos, and wallabies, but will also gladly eat invasive rabbits and rats—both of which are known to be highly destructive to the Australian ecosystem, making dingoes a valuable contributor to Australia's ecological health. They can drink about a liter of water each day in the summer, and half a liter in winter.

The relationship between the dogs and the Indigenous peoples of Australia is considered one of commensalism, in which two organisms live in close association, but do not depend on each other for survival. The two hunt, sleep, and associate with each other, but are capable of surviving independently on their own. Any dingo that interacts with humans can be socialized and become an "owned" dog, but they are still considered wild animals. As such, its status as a domestic animal is not clear. Like domestic dogs, dingoes tend to use phonetic communication, but more frequently employ howls and whimpers. These vocalizations are very diverse, and eight sound classes with 19 sound types have been identified for dingo vocalizations. Based on a comparison of modern dingoes with fossil records, dingo morphology has not changed over thousands of years. These records suggests that no artificial selection has been applied over those several thousand years, and that the dingo represents an early form of canids. They have lived, bred, and undergone natural selection in the wild, isolated from other dogs until the arrival of European settlers. The lack of interference from humans has resulted in a unique breed.

Portrait of a Large Dog' (Dingo). An oil painting of a black and tan variant dingo. Painting by George Stubbs (1724–1806).

Because they are considered a feral form of the domestic dog, the dingo is considered to not warrant certification as a subspecies or a fully separate species. Accordingly, a workshop hosted by the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group in 2019 declared the New Guinea singing dog and the dingo to be feral dogs, and therefore could not and should not be assessed for the IUCN Red List; as such, they are simply considered "threatened", though issues such as human-animal conflict and habitat loss continue to threaten dingo populations just as they do other Australian fauna.

Trivia

• Dingo populations in coastal regions are frequent coastline scavengers, cleaning up deceased fish, seagull, and penguin carcasses that have washed ashore.
• Dingoes do not have dewclaws.
• The lineage for the dingo and New Guinea singing dog split early from the lineage that led to today's domestic dogs, thus making them very distant relatives.
• In 2020, an MDNA study of ancient dog remains from southern China showed that most ancient dogs fell within "haplogroup A1b", the same group Australian dingoes and the pre-colonial dogs of the Pacific come from. The specimen dated back to 7,000 YBP (years before present) and is basal to the entire haplogroup A1b lineage.
• Dingo attacks on humans are rare in Australia, and when they do occur are generally on young children. One of the most well-known incidents was the death of Azaria Chamberlain, a 1980 incident in which a nine-week old girl was taken by dingoes from her family's campsite and never found. The story has been made into a book, a TV series, and even an Opera.

References

• Wikipedia Page
• Jackson, Stephen; Groves, Colin (2015). Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. pp. 287–290. ISBN 978-1-4863-0013-6.
• Blumenbach, J.F. 1799. Sechste Auflage. Johann Christian Dieterich, Göttingen. Edition 6. [ref page 100, under Canis, under familiaris, under Dingo. Translation: "Dingo. The New Holland dog. Is similar, especially in the head and shoulders, as a fox.]
• Jackson, Stephen M.; Groves, Colin P.; Fleming, Peter J.S.; Aplin, KEN P.; Eldridge, Mark D.B.; Gonzalez, Antonio; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2017). "The Wayward Dog: Is the Australian native dog or Dingo a distinct species?". Zootaxa. 4317 (2): 201. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4317.2.1
• "Mammal Diversity Database". American Society of Mammalogists. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
• Smith 2015, pp. xi–24 Chapter 1 – Bradley Smith
• "Old World Canis spp. with taxonomic ambiguity: Workshop conclusions and recommendations. CIBIO. Vairão, Portugal, 28th – 30th May 2019" (PDF). IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
• Jackson, Stephen M.; Groves, Colin P.; Fleming, Peter J.S.; Aplin, KEN P.; Eldridge, Mark D.B.; Gonzalez, Antonio; Helgen, Kristofer M. (2017). "The Wayward Dog: Is the Australian native dog or Dingo a distinct species?". Zootaxa. 4317 (2): 201. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4317.2.1.
• "Ancient DNA evidence from China reveals the expansion of Pacific dogs". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 37 (5): 1462–1469. doi:10.1093/molbev/msz311. PMC 7182212. PMID 31913480.