From Wolf-Like to Not-a-Wolf: How the Australian Dingo Became Australia's Strongest Predator
Australia is a magical continent, due to thousands of kilometers of vast oceans, this continent is isolated and separated, which leads to the animals and plants on it being different from other continents, and evolving in different directions. Later, due toSudden environmental changes and other reasons, Australia's large placental animals one after another went extinct, thus Australia became the realm of marsupials.Marsupials in most cases are herbivores, and the few large carnivorous marsupials also gradually went extinct in later evolution. Among them, the extinction of the wolpermit was becauseToday's strongest predator in Australia, 'Dingo'has an inseparable responsibility.
The tranquility of Australia is broken after the arrival of humans. Humans' first arrival in Australia was about 50,000 years ago, but at this time, Australia's continent did not have dogs. Until
5,000 years agoMigrants arrived in Australia again, this time they brought dingoes to Australia,According to data and genetic research on dingoes, this animal is related to Southeast Asian domestic dogs. Therefore, scientists in the report pointed out that
Dingoes are a small branch of an ancient dog species. This dog may have evolved from a small group of dogs brought to Australia 5,000 years ago by Southeast Asian immigrants.Then we look at the dingoes, it seems that all this is saying makes sense. Dingoes look like dogs, with a very ordinary appearance, it is hard to imagine it later becoming Australia's strongest predator. However, don't be deceived by appearances. Dingoes are not dogs in essence, neither in terms of wildness nor in terms of behavior. They are significantly different from dogs and belong to a unique Australian dingo subspecies.
Before classification, people always had doubts about the identity of dingoes, because they looked like dogs and people thought they evolved from domestic dogs, so they thought they were dogs. However, their behavior was more similar to wolves, their howls were not 'woof' like dogs, and the social structure of dingoes was similar to wolvesThere is a strict hierarchical system, only the leaders can reproduce offspring, rarely like domestic dogs, because people thought it was a wolf. In the end, considering their differences from dogs and wolves, a new subspecies was created——Australian Dingo Subspecies
Later took the upper hand and became Australia's strongest predatorAfter recognizing the 'dog-like but not a dog, dog-like but not a dog' truth of dingoesWe need to understand how this ordinary-looking species, which doesn't belong to Australia, eventually became Australia's strongest predator.5,000 years ago, dingoes arrived from elsewhere, and after being released into the wild, they lived well in this continent. They quickly adapted to the environment of the Australian continent and integrated into the local ecosystem.Dingoes have a strong ability to adapt to the environment, they can live in tropical forests, grasslands, deserts, and plateaus, and they even dare to live near villages,In fact, Australia's continent still had powerful predators at that time, such as wolpermit. But after dingoes arrived, the position of wolpermit was challenged. It didn't mean that wolpermit couldn't beat dingoes, but wolpermit usually lived in small families and lived in groups of three or four, while dingoes lived in large groups with ten or more individuals, and in terms of quantity, wolpermit couldn't compete with dingoes. Moreover, dingoes arrived in Australia, and wolpermit's survival environment and dingoes' survival environment overlapped, leading to
Reproductive competition
became a big problem. Wolpermit usually had 2~3 offspring, while dingoes had 4~5 offspring on average. About their growth, wolpermits need 3-4 months to leave the parental pouch and it takes a long time to become independent, while dingoes' children can live independently in 3-4 months. In this way, the population of dingoes became stronger and stronger.The strength of the population also needs the necessary conditions, which is that dingoes require a rich diet. In terms of diet, they can eat almost anything they find, and Australian animals are all their food. In this regard, dingoes are really opportunistic.When facing small mammals, they can solve the battle alone, and when facing large animals, they will cooperate in groups to hunt. Dingoes have a perfect social survival rule, they are united, intelligent and flexible, they exist like wolf packs but it is easier for them to adapt to the environment.
In conclusionThis
super-strong environmental adaptation, super-high reproduction ability, super-realistic opportunism, and perfect team cooperation abilityallowed this ordinary-looking species, which doesn't belong to Australia, to eventually become Australia's strongest predator, even the current strongest predator in Australia.
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