Most Australia’s ‘Wild Dogs’ Are Actually Dingoes, DNA Study Finds
A large genetic study reveals that the country’s so-called “wild dogs” remain overwhelmingly dingoes, reshaping debates over wildlife conservation and management.
Australian dingoes. Image credit: Sharkolot.
“Dingoes fulfill a unique ecological role in Australian ecosystems, becoming the only terrestrial predator on the continent (and several offshore islands) shortly after their arrival more than 3,000 years ago,” said Yassine Souilmi, a researcher at the University of Adelaide, and colleagues.
“Culturally, they are of great importance to many Aboriginal Australians, often appearing in ancestral songs as key contributors to ecological and cultural balance.”
“However, dingoes have been involved in ongoing conflicts with pastoralists since the early colonial period (1800), resulting in the implementation of dingo management measures across Australia.”
In their new study, the authors analyzed more than 300 free-ranging dogs across Australia and found that on average, only 11.7% of their DNA came from domestic dogs.
Levels were highest in southeastern Australia, particularly Victoria and New South Wales, and much lower in remote northern and western areas.
“For decades, different genetic tests have given conflicting answers about how much European canine ancestry free-ranging dingoes carry,” Dr Souilmi said.
“Our study used precolonial dingo DNA as a true benchmark to resolve this disagreement, and we concluded that the vast majority of free-ranging dogs in Australia are overwhelmingly dingoes.”
This discovery, which is also based on ancient DNA records, has major implications for how the species is classified and how the population should be managed.
“The label ‘wild dog’ hides important biological and cultural differences. A predominantly dingo individual is not the same as a stray domestic dog,” Dr Souilmi said.
“Future management should be regionally informed and developed in close partnership with Australian Indigenous communities, for whom dingoes have been companions and relatives for thousands of years.”
The new testing technique remains accurate with few DNA markers, making affordable, large-scale ancestry screening feasible for the first time.
“As our test works reliably with so few markers, ancestry screening is finally affordable for routine use,” said first author Dr Shyamsundar Ravishankar, also from the University of Adelaide.
“Wildlife agencies no longer need a genome-wide budget to get a reliable answer. »
The study also divided Australia’s dingoes into eight genetically distinct populations, including two previously undescribed groups in northern and central Australia.
After accounting for the ancestry of domestic dogs, populations in the Southeast were found to be much less genetically diverse than those in the North and Central.
The Mallee (Great Desert) dingoes of north-west Victoria were distinctive, with even lower ancestral diversity than the small, isolated K’gari population.
“Once we remove the domestic dog component, the picture changes,” said co-author Dr Nhi Chau Nguyen, also from the University of Adelaide.
“Canine ancestry has driven overall variation in southeastern dingoes, but it has eroded some of what makes these dingoes genetically distinct.”
“We also confirmed previous work showing that gene flow from European dogs to dingoes peaked in the mid-20th century, particularly in the 1960s, coinciding with rapid post-war population growth and intensification of agriculture in southeastern Australia.”
The results appear in the newspaper Conservation letters.
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Shyamsundar Ravishankar and others. 2026. Paleogenomics-based inferences of European dog admixture enable evolutionary conservation of dingoes. Conservation letters 19 (3): e70052; doi: 10.1111/con4.70052
