First documented observations of the dingo...

The very first observations of the dingo... The first report of a dingo in Australia was made by a dutch navigator named Jan Cartensz, who in 1623 observed dingo tracks while in the Gulp of Carpentaria on an expedition to find people with whom to trade spices. In 1688, William Dampier observed dingoes on the north-west coast, and described those he saw as being "little hungry wolves"- lean like so many skeletons. The earliest reference of the term dingo came from the observations of early explorers of the Indigenous people and the dogs that lived along side them. For example, in 1770 Captain James Cook saw tame dogs with the Indigenous people when exploring along the Queensland coast, and British explorer Watkin Tench, who was part of the first fleet of ships sent to settle in Australia in 1789, wrote that the only domestic animal they have is the dog, which in their language is called Dingo, and a good deal resembles the fox of England! It's important to know that not only are dingoes a distinct species, but also a distinct group of predators, SEPARATE from dogs and wolves. We all know that dingoes arrived in Australia several thousands of years ago, and they were first mentioned as a species in 1793. At that time they were called Canis Dingo, however, their official name was soon changed to Canis Lupus Dingo, on the assumption that dingoes were, in fact, a subspecies of wolf and within the same evolutionary clad as domestic dogs. All that went out the window when a new study earlier last year challenged that assumption. "They were wrong". They examined 69 dingo skulls that dated back to 1900 or earlier-presumably before dingoes would have encounted and interbred with domesticated dogs. This research found, dingoes, have anatomical features that set them apart from any dog or wolf, including much wider heads and with a longer snout. The scientific name has now been restored back to Canis Dingo. This recognises them distinct from both wolves and domestic dogs. "Now any wild canid-dingo, dog, or hybrid of two, can be judged against this classification".