The Australian dingo: untamed or feral?

Abstract

BackgroundThe Australian dingo continues to cause debate amongst Aboriginal people, pastoralists, scientists and the government in Australia. A lingering controversy is whether the dingo has been tamed and has now reverted to its ancestral wild state or whether its ancestors were domesticated and it now resides on the continent as a feral dog. The goal of this article is to place the discussion onto a theoretical framework, highlight what is currently known about dingo origins and taxonomy and then make a series of experimentally testable organismal, cellular and biochemical predictions that we propose can focus future research.DiscussionWe consider a canid that has been unconsciously selected as a tamed animal and the endpoint of methodical or what we now call artificial selection as a domesticated animal. We consider wild animals that were formerly tamed as untamed and those wild animals that were formerly domesticated as feralized. Untamed canids are predicted to be marked by a signature of unconscious selection whereas feral animals are hypothesized to be marked by signatures of both unconscious and artificial selection. First, we review the movement of dingo ancestors into Australia. We then discuss how differences between taming and domestication may influence the organismal traits of skull morphometrics, brain and size, seasonal breeding, and sociability. Finally, we consider cellular and molecular level traits including hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic position of dingoes, metabolic genes that appear to be under positive selection and the potential for micronutrient compensation by the gut microbiome.ConclusionsWestern Australian Government policy is currently being revised to allow the widespread killing of the Australian dingo. These policies are based on an incomplete understanding of the evolutionary history of the canid and assume the dingo is feralized. However, accumulated evidence does not definitively show that the dingo was ever domesticated and additional focused research is required. We suggest that incorporating ancient DNA data into the debate concerning dingo origins will be pivotal to understanding the evolutionary history of the canid. Further, we advocate that future morphological, behavioural and genetic studies should focus on including genetically pure Alpine and Desert dingoes and not dingo-dog hybrids. Finally, we propose that future studies critically examine genes under selection in the dingo and employ the genome from a wild canid for comparison.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-019-0300-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Getting Back to Nature: Feralization in Animals and Plants

“…Yet, while these cultivars can feralize [17], such non-anthropogenic processes lie beyond the scope of this review. Others [13,18] describe domestication as movement along continua of human-animal interactions or, alternatively, as solely the onset of human-facilitated propagation (e.g., [11]). In this review, we expand an operational definition developed for animals [19] to include agricultural and ornamental plants.…”

Metabolomics shows the Australian dingo has a unique plasma profile

“…Dingoes are Australia’s apex predator and their natural history is extensively studied (Ballard and Wilson, 2019). However, little is known about their cell biology or metabolic profile (Carthey et al, 2017).…”

“…The Australian dingo and domestic dogs have experienced distinctive selection pressures. Dingoes arrived in Australia between 3,000-5,000 years ago (Savolainen et al, 2004), are ecologically, phenotypically and behaviourally distinct from domestic dogs (Smith et al, 2019), and can survive in the wild without human interference (Ballard and Wilson, 2019). The dingo maintains ecosystem balance by controlling populations of introduced mesopredators and herbivores (Letnic et al, 2012, Letnic et al, 2009).…”

What the dingo says about dog domestication

“…Similarly, dingo pups develop more rapidly than the pups of domestic dogs and more like wolves (Anonymous, n.d.;Barker and MacIntosh, 1979). This may be a retention from wolves, which show similarly accelerated development (Ballard & Wilson, 2019;Geiger et al, 2017;Lord, 2013).…”

“…Dingoes also differ from most dogs in their reproductive and developmental schedule. Female dingoes breed once annually and only one female in a pack will breed at a time, instead of twice a year as in domestic dogs (Ballard & Wilson, 2019;Catling et al, 1992;Johnston et al, 2001;Lord et al, 2011;Smith & Vague, 2016). This may be an adaptation to an irregular food supply or a retention from wolves.…”