Species and Speciation Part 3 – Dingos and Painted Dogs of Africa

All that is left out so far in this discussion are Dingos of Australia and Africa’s Wild Dogs (or Painted Dogs). All the DNA evidence suggests Dingos are descendants of domestic dogs which the first persons (probably Indonesians) to colonize Australia brought with them. It is believed that Dingos have been in Australia for 5,000 to 10,000 years, perhaps longer. For tens of thousands of years everywhere humans went as they spread across the globe they brought with them dogs. Australia and North American were the last continents to be colonized by man. The African Painted Dogs (Lycaon pictus) are another matter. Painted dogs have been in Africa a long time. The oldest L. pictus fossil dates back to 200,000 years ago and was found in a cave in Israel. First off, Painted Dogs are not feral dogs, wild domesticated dogs or village dogs. They are just “wild” and do not spend time at the edges of human settlements. There really is little genetic research on them. They are highly endangered and number only perhaps 6000). It also appears that they do not breed with feral or village dogs in Africa. Their social structure is very strong. It is believed that there is a strong behavior for males to not breed in their colony. However, their populations are so fragmented that males seeking other mates fail to do so. This is believed to be a contributing factor to their decline.