The Changing Folkways of the Australian Wild Dog

Abstract

No class of animal is more entwined with humans than the dog and itswild progenitors. In Australia, the dingo has attracted its share offolklore and story. New approaches to ethology (the science of animalbehaviour) depict animals as possessing social intelligence and evenfolkways. The dingo, having survived two centuries of conflict andattempts at extermination, has demonstrated social intelligence byadapting successfully to massive campaigns against it. The details ofthe dingo's changing survival strategy may be concealed in a wealth ofanecdotal accounts, the forerunners of the more conventional scientific studies of recent years. Tapping this behavioural source requires a methodology that can test these stories in a scientifically respectable manner. Although the hybridisation of dingoes with domestic dogs threatens the survival of pure dingoes, it may provide an entry point for human observation of dingo societies.