The dingo is Australia's  wild dog.

 It is believed that dingoes came to Australia about 40,000 years ago, and perhaps even earlier. It is thought that their origins may go back to the south Asian grey wolf. Dingoes may have been brought to the country by Aboriginal peoples or by Indonesian or Southeast Asian fishermen.  

Aboriginal peoples kept dingoes in their camps and the dogs hunted with the men. In Aboriginal languages (there are many), words for 'dingo' include warrigal, maliki, noggum, boolomo or mirigung.   In some parts of Australia today some people keep a tame dingo as a pet dog, but must have a licence to do so.

Habitat and Distribution (where they are found)

Dingoes are able to adapt to many different habitats throughout Australia, but not Tasmania.  (Some people spell the plural of dingo as 'dingoes', others spell it 'dingos'. Both are OK!).

When European settlers established farming areas, they went to great effort to get rid of dingoes. Today dingoes are not so common in some parts of Australia.

Dingoes prefer woodland and grasslands close to forests, where there is available water.

Dingoes on Fraser Island

The dingo population of Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland, are considered to be the purest strain of dingo. This is because domestic dogs are banned from the island and so there has been no inter-breeding as there has been elsewhere in Australia. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is an Australian World Heritage site, along with Uluru, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef. Its Aboriginal name in the language of the Butchulla people is K’gari.

Appearance

Dingoes are about 50 centimetres tall and about 120 centimetres long.  

A dingo has a bushy tail and pointed ears. 

Most dingoes have coats of short yellow -brown hair but there are cream-coloured dingos as well as black and tan.

One adaptation is in the dingo's coat: a dingo living in hot, tropical areas has a short single coat while a dingo living in cool to cold mountain areas has a longer and thicker coat with a double layer of fur.

Behaviours

Dingoes usually live in small family groups or a pack. Each dingo group has its own territory.

Dingoes hunt alone or with other dingoes to catch large prey. The time of day they hunt depends on on their habitat and climate.They can hunt in the day time or at dawn/dusk. In warmer climates or seasons they may hunt at night.

Dingoes don't bark. They howl as a way of announcing where their territory is. They make many different sounds to communicate within the group or to call pups that stray.

Diet

Dingoes eat almost anything. They hunt reptiles and mammals and will even eat insects. They also eat dead animals they find, and some kinds of plants.  

When Europeans arrived in Australia the dingoes hunted and killed the sheep and rabbits that the settlers brought with them.

Life Cycle

A dingo pair stays together for life. Dingoes mate between May and July (winter) and the pups are born 63 days later. The bitch gives birth to her pups in a den.

A litter of pups is usually about five. Both the male and the female care for their pups. They catch food and bring it to the pups until they are about 3 weeks old. Then the pups leave the den and are taught to hunt by their parents. The parents will still catch the prey for their young but they leave it somewhere near the den for the pups to hunt down.  

Read more about the dingo:

http://www.australiazoo.com.au/our-animals/mammals/dingoes
http://www.nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/fraser/fraser-island-dingoes.html