The Dingo Is Not Actually Native to Australia

Genetic studies have established that dingoes are descended from a population of domestic dogs originating in southern East Asia. Archaeological evidence places their arrival in Australia at roughly 3,500 to 4,000 years ago, probably brought by maritime traders or Austronesian peoples who made contact with Aboriginal Australians long before European colonisation. Unlike the continent indigenous marsupials, which have been evolving in isolation for over 45 million years, dingoes are geological newcomers. Notably, they arrived around the same time as the mainland extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) and the Tasmanian devil, both of which survived on Tasmania, which dingoes never reached. Dingoes occupy every major habitat on the continent except Tasmania and are the apex predator across most of the outback. They form loose social groups and communicate primarily through howling rather than barking, a retained trait from their partially wild ancestry. Australia 5,600 kilometre dingo fence, built to protect southeastern livestock, is the longest fence in the world.