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  • Print publication year: 2014
  • Online publication date: February 2014

19 - Introducing a new top predator, the dingo

from Part II - Modern invaders
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Summary

Introduction

The introduction and establishment of the dingo Canis lupus Linnaeus; subspecies dingo was a landmark event in a long process of transformation of Australia’s assemblage of large mammalian carnivores, in which a diverse community of carnivorous marsupials was replaced by a simpler one dominated by invasive placental species. This chapter reviews current knowledge of that event. We discuss the interaction of the dingo with the Australian fauna and the reasons for its striking success on this continent, in relation to the 11 hypotheses that are addressed throughout this book. Because this case study is of a single species only, it has many idiosyncratic features and has little to say on some of these hypotheses. On the other hand, the history of the dingo is especially informative on several others.

The dingo closely resembles primitive domestic dogs that are still common in parts of southeast Asia and that were formerly more widespread in Asia (Corbett 2001; Irion et al. 2005). Evidence from mitochondrial DNA suggests that dingoes diverged from their Asian parent stock about 5000 years ago (Savolainen et al. 2004). This date is consistent with the first fossil appearance of dogs to the north of Australia in the archaeological records of Java, Timor and New Guinea between 5100 and 3000 years ago (Bellwood 1997; Bulmer 2001; Veth et al. 2005; O’Connor and Aplin 2007; Morwood et al. 2008; Sutton et al. 2009). Dingoes appear in the Australian fossil record soon after 3500 years ago: the three earliest dates are 3450, 3230 and 3170 years BP, from, respectively, Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia (Milham and Thompson 1976), Wombah Midden in eastern New South Wales (McBryde 1982), and Fromm’s Landing in southeast South Australia (Mulvaney et al. 1964).

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Invasion Biology and Ecological Theory
  • Online ISBN: 9781139565424
  • Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139565424
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