Dingo

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A wild dog that arrived in Australia thousands of years ago; it rarely barks but howls instead. It hunts rabbits, wallabies and small animals, and can live in dry, harsh inland country.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Class: Mammals
Lives in: Inland Queensland, Australia
Diet: Meat eater (carnivore)
Weight: about 15 kg
Length: about 1.3 m
Top speed: about 48 km/h
Lifespan: up to about 18 years
Habitat: deserts, grasslands, forests

Quick answers

Where does the Dingo live?

It lives in deserts, grasslands, forests. On the globe you can find it near Inland Queensland, Australia.

How big is the Dingo?

It grows to about 1.3 m and 15 kg.

What does the Dingo eat?

Its diet: meat eater (carnivore).

How fast is the Dingo?

It can reach about 48 km/h.

How long does the Dingo live?

It can live up to about 18 years.

The dingo is a wild dog that lives in Australia. It is a lean, medium-sized animal with a wedge-shaped head, and its coat is usually ginger or tan, though some are black and tan or creamy white. It is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog.

Scientists still debate how to classify it: some call it a kind of domestic dog, others a subspecies, and others a species of its own. Dingoes rarely bark. They howl instead, and a pack is usually a mated pair with their pups from the year. Dingoes are social but shy, and they have a place in Aboriginal Australian stories and languages, where different peoples use many different names for them.

Where did dingoes come from?

Dingoes belong to a line of dogs that split off early from the dogs we keep as pets. Their ancestors can be traced back through Maritime Southeast Asia to Asia. The oldest dingo remains found in Australia are about 3,500 years old, so they arrived long before European ships did.

The word "dingo" comes from the Dharug language of the Sydney area. British settlers wrote it down in 1789 after seeing dingoes living beside Aboriginal people.

Life in a pack

A dingo pack is a small family: a mated pair, their young of the current year, and sometimes young from the year before. Dingoes are built for speed, agility and stamina, which helps them hunt in open country.

They live in many places, including dry inland areas. On K'gari (Fraser Island) the dingo, called wongari, has an important place in the culture of the Butchulla people.

Fun facts

The first written record of the word "dingo" is from 1789.
Dingoes howl far more often than they bark.
Australia's Dingo Fence, built to keep dingoes away from sheep, is more than 5,000 km long.
The oldest dingo remains in Australia are about 3,500 years old.