Dingo: The King of Australia

the Australian outback making up 81% of mainland Australia these vast and diverse range lands are home to a wide variety of spectacular species thorny dragons frilled neck lizards kangaroos wedge-tailed Eagles but one species has conquered this massive challenging ecosystem along with the rest of the mainland and it's not even native to Australia this is Australia's conquering king the apex predator Down Under the dingo [Music] hi I'm Daniel Defoe and you're watching Animalia logic found accross mainland Australia the dingo is a type of canine likely descended from domesticated wild dogs but their taxonomy is a mess there are the largest terrestrial predators in Australia and I got to meet two hello please hello so here I've got scorching blaze the Alpine dingoes both of these dingoes were raised in captivity and are almost as friendly as domestic dogs they're incredibly friendly and their behavior is so similar to the dogs that we know while they may look like dogs they do have some big differences unlike dogs they can't bark they're also unable to digest starch meaning they couldn't eat kibble no one is certain if dingoes are wolves dogs or their own thing but the most recent research is pointing to dingoes being their own species rather than a breed of dog being apex predators dingoes are incredibly important to the health of the ecosystem even though they're not native species they've been in Australia for at least 3,500 years that's the oldest physical evidence of fossils of dingoes and they've not changed since the time that they've been discovered as fossils it took dingoes about a hundred years to conquer the entire continent but how they got here in the first place is still a bit of a mystery some believe that dingoes were brought here from Malaysia by ancient mariners while others believe they may have crossed over by themselves traversing the land bridges that would have formed during low tides regardless of how they got to Australia they play a valuable role in the ecosystem being the continents apex predator since the extinction of the thylacine in 1936 [Music] fully grown dingoes weigh about 15 kilograms stand around 60 centimetres tall at the shoulder and measure about 1.2 meters from head to tail they've evolved to be strong and agile a necessary combination to catch large kangaroos but they'll eat anything they can get their jaws around the fact that they can eat just about anything here is in a lot of ways a boon to the populations of Australia as apex predators they are responsible for keeping prey populations in check studies have shown that when dingoes are present the number of large kangaroos decreases which increases plant life and protects the surviving kangaroos from starvation balanced as all things should be in other words with fewer dingoes kangaroos eat all the plants in their environment which makes them more likely to die of starvation another great service that they do for Australia is that they call invasive species and Australia has got a lot of issues right now concerning invasive species like cats and rats and all kinds of different rodents a lot of endemic species are being threatened by these invasive species so these guys are doing a huge service to all of Australia and it's endemic wildlife by reducing numbers of creatures like that they live in groups of up to ten individuals usually with a dominant pair at the helm like African wild dogs when dingoes are hunting large prey like red kangaroos they hunt in packs on the hunt they'll harass and chase the prey until it's exhausted and then they go for the kill but their size limits their scope and can only take down prey up to a hundred kilograms meaning that adult horses cows and pigs are off the menu while their prey may not be huge they are quite effective and their numbers allow them to out-compete foxes and take down prey larger than they could solo these parks make them a problem for farmers and historically dingos have been viewed in a negative light since the European settlement of Australia dingoes have been maligned for killing livestock including young cattle sheep and goats and so they started to call dingoes for the sake of protecting that livestock in the 1800s dingoes were considered such a huge problem for agriculture that a massive 5,000 kilometer long fence was created to protect the agriculturally important Australian Southwest this fence still exists today and there have been calls to allow dingoes back over the border to increase biodiversity and help call the populations of kangaroos and foxes which run rampant without the dingoes keeping them under control but pressure from the meat industry means that for the foreseeable future dingoes won't be crossing the border to hunt any sweet sweet kangaroo often dingoes mate for life and will have a litter once a year both parents are very involved in raising their adorable pups by six months of age the pups will have learned everything they need to know about being a dingo and they'll set off into the world causing mischief and stealing kisses wherever they go I had a lot of fun getting up close and personal with these dingos if you want to see even more of our latest trip to Australia and head on over to our patreon page for exclusive behind-the-scenes content in this week's episode we got stuck on a mountain hours from civilization it was a real fun time times are tough for everybody right now and so all of these behind-the-scenes episodes will be early access to patrons and then they'll be available to everyone to watch there will be a new behind-the-scenes episode every Friday until we run out thanks for your support really appreciate it we hope you enjoy watching what should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of Animal Logic every week thanks for watching said alright could say I'm a cat person but I loved those dingos I'd take a dingo home if I could keep up but you can't do that don't ever do that you'll wants you though trust me

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 662,040

Rating: 4.923017 out of 5

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, Dingo, king of australia, down under, outback, dingoes, dingo baby, maybe the dingo ate your baby, king, ruler, apex, predator, apex predator, top dog, teeth, dog, puppy, largest predator, pack hunter, top tier predator, wild dog, doggo

Id: _fsSZopC6FM

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020