A Dingo–dog hybrid is a cross between a dingo and a domestic dog. The current population of free ranging domestic dogs in Australia is probably higher than in the past. However, the proportion of the so-called "pure"Since there is no consensus as to which dogs should be regarded as dingoes and it is unknown whether the observed dingoes weren't hybrids, the term pure is written in quotations in this article. dingoes (dogs with exclusively-dingo ancestry) has been on the decrease over the last few decades due to hybridisation and is regarded as further decreasing.
Because of this ongoing interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs and the resulting hybrids, there is a much wider range of colours and body shapes today among the Australian wild dog population than in the time before the human introduction of domestic dogs. The full extent of the effects of this process is currently unknown and the possibility of potential problems, as well as the wish to preserve the "pure" dingo, often leads to a strong rejection of the interbreeding.Fleming, Corbett, Harden and Thomson (2001)
In 2019, a study of 402 wild and captive dingoes using 195,000 points across the dingo genome indicates that past studies of hybridisation were over-estimated and that pure dingoes are more common than they were originally thought to be.
In 2021, DNA testing of over 5,000 wild-living canines from across Australia found that 31 were feral domestic dogs and 27 were first generation hybrids. This finding challenges the perception that dingoes are nearly extinct and have been replaced by feral domestic dogs.
Causes Dingoes arrived in Australia together with seafarers four millennia ago, and reverted to the wild there. The dingo has been proven to have existed on the continent for at least 3,500 years, which was confirmed by archaeological as well as genetic examinations and findings. Additionally, it was suspected that there was later no significant introduction of other domestic dogs before the arrival of the Europeans.
European domestic dogs arrived in Australia in the 18th century, during the European colonization. Since then, some of those dogs dispersed into the wild (both deliberately and accidentally) and founded feral populations, especially in places where the dingo numbers had been severely reduced due to human intervention. Although there are few records of such releases, their occurrence is supported by reports of free-living dogs of specific breeds being seen or captured in remote areas. The spread of farming and grazing activities in the 19th century led to a further spread of other domestic dogs, both pet and feral ones. Interbreeding with the native dingoes has probably been occurring since the arrival of domestic dogs in the year 1788.
Forms Dingoes and domestic dogs interbreed freely with each other and therefore the term "wild dog" is often used for describing all dingoes, dingo-hybrids and other feral domestic dogs, because the borders between the three are unclear.
Interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs is not necessarily unintended and dingoes have been used for the breeding of certain dog breeds. These breeding attempts started in the 19th century. The only attempt to date that was regarded as successful was the breeding of the Australian Cattle Dog. It is possible that the Australian Kelpie is descended from dingoes too; however, that has not been proven.
Occasionally claims are made that interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs together with successful rearing of hybrids is a rare phenomenon in the wild due to supposedly radical differences in behaviour and biology and the harshness of the wilderness. However, cases of dogs that came from human households but nonetheless manage to survive on their own (even by active hunting) and to successfully rear pups have been consistently proven.. German behaviourist Eberhard Trumler (regarded as a Nestor of cynology in the German speaking world) believed that cross-breeds of dingoes and shepherd dogs might have good chances of surviving in the wild. In addition Alfred Brehm already reported of interbreeding of dingoes and domestic dogs of both sexes. There are even reports of dingo-like wild dogs mating with restrained female domestic dogs.
The rate of interbreeding increases when dingoes come to urban centres, due to the prospect of easily accessible food resources. However, since interactions between dingoes and feral domestic dogs in the bush differ greatly from those in urban places, so too do the rates of hybridisation. It is known that domestic dogs get lost in the bush time and again. However; it is assumed that the behavioural differences between dingoes and domestic dogs are big enough to make it difficult for these dogs to be integrated into dingo-society and successfully breed, especially in remote areas. A further spreading of hybrids might hasten the process of interbreeding by reducing behavioural differences. This could partially explain the higher proportion of dingo-hybrids in Southeast Australia. The most likely possibility is that the territorial behaviour of established dingo-packs, which keeps away all foreign dogs (dingoes included) and prevents them from breeding, curbs the rate of interbreeding. Dingoes owned by humans as pets are likely to use their owner's home as a base from which to roam, or are abandoned when they reach adulthood. The result of this pet trend is that contacts between dingoes and domestic dogs are increasing; because pet dingoes grow up without learning the social behaviours that curb mating and therefore crossbreeding. Many such hybrids are rejected by owners or stray to the bush where they may breed with "pure" dingoes. In addition it is proven that hybrids can appear when dingoes mate with livestock guardian dogs; interbreeding can even occur with dogs that were acquired by their owners to specifically kill dingoes.
There is currently no evidence that the known measures for the control of dingoes and other wild dogs are effectively able to slow the process of interbreeding. It seems rather to be that these controls hasten the process of interbreeding since it breaks up traditional pack structures and therefore causes some mechanisms of population control to disappear.
Degree of interbreeding Dingo-samples that have been collected in the 1960s and 1970s indicated that half of the wild dogs of southern Tasmania were dingo-hybrids; analyses from the early 1980s supported the trend of increasing interbreeding. Based on skull features researchers found out that the proportion of "pure" dingoes in the highlands of the Southeast decreased from 49% in the 1960s to 17% in the 1980s. During examinations in the year 1985 in Southeast-Australia only 55% of the 407 studied "dingoes" weren't hybrids. 36% of the dogs were dingo-hybrids and the rest wild dogs of other origin. In the middle of the 1980s the proportion of "pure" dingoes to dingo-hybrids in Central Australia was estimated (based on skull features) to be 97.5% and 2.4% respectively. In contrast, in Southeast-Australia the estimates were 55.3% and 33.92% respectively. It was reasoned from these findings that mixed populations can be expected in areas where human settlements exist and wild dogs remain, furthermore that hybrids can be expected to be rarer in remote areas. Broken colour-patterns, red with white, black or bluish spots, completely black, brown or bluish, black-and-white and piebald striped patterns were also more prevalent in the second area (34.8%) than in the first (5.7%). In Southeast-Australia there were no differences between areas near farmlands and forest concerning the frequency of the colourations. Many of these colourations also occurred in breeding experiments of reddish dingoes with variously coloured other domestic dogs. All in all about 50% of the populations in Eastern and Southern Australia consisted of hybrids in the 1980s. Depending on the area in Southeast-Australia it was estimated that the proportion of "pure" dingoes was at least 22% and at its most 65%. 100 dog skulls from the Queensland Museum were measured and analysed, to determine the frequency of dingoes in the dog-populations of Queensland. The highest frequency of dingoes (95%) was found among skulls from central Queensland and the highest frequency of other domestic dogs and dingo-hybrids (50%) was found in the Southeast of the state. K'gari had only a low frequency of hybrids (17%) that were mostly limited to the southern half of the island. It was estimated back then that the proportion of dingo-hybrids in the continent-wide population was about 78%.Corbett (1995) At the turn of the millennium only 74% of 180 skulls from seven main areas of Australia could be classified as dingo-skulls during measurements and none of the populations consisted exclusively of dingoes. According to Laurie Corbett some examined wild dog populations in New South Wales consisted entirely of hybrids.
Hybrids of dingoes and other domestic dogs are considered to exist in all populations worldwide today. Their proportion is regarded as increasing and completely "pure" populations may no longer exist. However, the exact extent of this interbreeding is unknown. This process might have reached such a high extent that there are big populations that consist entirely of hybrids. Traditional methods for the identification for dingoes, dingo-hybrids and other domestic dogs (based on skull features, breeding patterns and fur colour) also indicate that interbreeding is widespread and occurs in all populations of Australia, especially in the East and the South of the continent. Based on skull features there are only a few "pure" dingoes left in New South Wales and the "pure" form might be locally extinct in the highlands of the Southeast. Even in areas that were once regarded as safe for "pure" dingoes, like the Kakadu national park or parts of the Northern Territory, dingo-hybrids now appear on the border zones of bush and settlements. In addition, hybrids have been spotted in northern Australia and in remote regions.
According to some sources, the dog population of Southeast Australia and along the East Coast now consists to 90% of dingo-hybrids, other sources state that the dog population along the East Coast consists to 80% of hybrids and only 15% to 20% of the dingoes in Southeast-Australia and South-Queensland are supposed to be "pure". In the Southwest of Australia and the interior of Queensland the 90-95% of the dingoes might be "pure". Genetic analyses during the last years came to the conclusion that the populations of wild dogs in the southern Blue Mountains consists of 96.8% dingo-hybrids. The statements (respectively estimations) on how many dingo-hybrids there are in the whole of Australia are very high but not homogeneous. Sometimes statements appear saying that most populations contain 80% hybrids or that 80% or 90% of all Australian wild dogs are dingo-hybrids.
However, these hybrids don't necessarily have to be of low dingo-content. During an analysis of 56 wild dogs in Southeast-Queensland the researchers found that these dogs had a dingo-content of more than 50% or were "pure" dingoes. "Pure" feral dogs of other origin or hybrids with low dingo-content could not be found. Therefore, it was reasoned that the wild dogs of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast are the descendants of dingoes, instead of escaped or rejected dogs. During studies on wild dogs of the Kosciuszko national park, many hybrids were found but these dogs were of relatively high dingo-content.