Today, wild dogs are distributed in more than 85% of Australia. They feed on various small and medium-sized herbivores, which plays a key role in maintaining the balance of the local ecosystem. The niche of wild dogs in Australia is undoubtedly equivalent to that of tigers, leopards and wolves in Asian forests.
Australian wild dog
There is a new problem about wild dogs in Australia, which we have to face, and that is the struggle for their identity. Some people say that Australian wild dogs were originally developed from domestic dogs, but they are more wild than some stray dogs, but they are essentially a kind of stray dogs, just like stray dogs Song Shiquan and garden dogs.
Others say that they have lived in the Australian mainland for 5,000 years and have already developed into a unique species in Australia. Although they are still young compared with koalas, kangaroos and other species, they are also representative and should be protected by law.
The Origin of Wild Dogs in Australia There are no dogs in Australia. Some people say that it was brought by European colonists at first, but in fact dogs came to Australia very early. As early as 5,000 years ago, people from Southeast Asia came to live in Australia and took them with them.
At the beginning, people didn't bring many dogs. They all lived in human activity areas, took on the role of guarding the house and helping hunting, and sometimes acted as human dogs? Spare rations? .
Later, with the increasing number of dogs, some began to get out of people's control and become stray dogs. At first, these stray dogs just moved around the village, preying on some animals such as livestock and poultry. Later, with the increase of wildness, they gradually developed into more inaccessible wild areas.
jackal
The reason why Australian wild dogs can grow and develop in Australia is related to human beings. Auxiliary? Can't get away with it. More than 3000 years ago, marsupials still lived in this land. Marsupials are very fierce carnivores. They feed on all kinds of herbivores. The arrival of human beings has had a great impact on their lives, leading to intense? Man-lion conflict? , causing people to hunt them crazily.
Some people will say that thousands of years ago, human life was still primitive, how can we deal with powerful beasts? The answer is that people use the power of fire
The newcomer has mastered the method of using fire. People use slash-and-burn cultivation to reclaim wasteland, which reduces the habitat of wild animals and intensifies the conflict between human beings and wild animals.
With the increasing number of wild animals wounding people and preying on livestock, humans will retaliate against them, and the way of revenge is also very direct, that is, setting fire to the forests around the village. This effect is remarkable, but it does great harm to wild animals. With human intervention, marsupials and other species soon became extinct.
Image restoration of marsupial lion
Wild dogs have developed rapidly without their biggest competitor, marsupials. Although there were still marsupials at that time, compared with marsupials, dogs were naturally gregarious, with higher social attributes, more diverse diets and stronger viability. In the future competition, Australian wild dogs gradually gained the upper hand and eventually surpassed marsupials.
Of course, there are humans in it, too? Help? As mentioned above, at first wild dogs just moved around the village and preyed on some livestock, but people at that time put this? Blame? Caught by marsupials that they thought were more dangerous, they hunted marsupials one after another, giving Australian wild dogs unprecedented opportunities for development.
Australian wild dogs prey on poultry.
More primitive marsupials are not as competitive as real mammals, plus humans? Help? So simply speaking, the decline history of marsupials is the development history of Australian wild dogs. The extinction of the marsupial lion and the marsupial wolf means that the Australian wild dog has completely lost its competitors' super reproductive ability, so the Australian wild dog has developed rapidly and its habitat has expanded rapidly, becoming the only large carnivore in Australia. Up to now, the number of wild dogs in Australia is about1-50 thousand.
There is a paper in the Journal of Zoology 20 14 that Australian wild dogs have a longer snout, a flatter head and some other characteristics compared with other dogs in the world. According to these characteristics, it can be concluded that the dingo is a unique species and should have its own name.
This article has attracted a lot of attention in Australia. The writer is an ecologist at the University of New South Wales. Many people agree with him, although compared with animals that have lived in Australia for hundreds of millions of years, such as dingoes and platypus, although? New? Some of them are imported, but it is undeniable that they have become a new indigenous species in Australia, which is different from ordinary wild dogs.
Australian wild dog image
There are pros and cons, mammalian taxonomist Chris? Helgen 20 17 directly writes papers? Back? In the past, he thought that Australian wild dogs were wild domestic dogs, which were not isolated from domestic dogs. Except for a little difference in appearance, they did not have any characteristics that any new species should have, so they were ordinary stray dogs, and like other breeds such as Rottweiler, they could not be regarded as new species.
Biologist Stephen? Jackson also supports Chris's view that if Australian wild dogs can be reclassified as a unique species and have their own scientific names, then other ancient dog breeds in the world should be reclassified, not classified? Dogs? Go inside.
The controversy about the identity of wild dogs in Australia is not only reflected in theory, but also in reality. In some national parks and protected areas in Australia, they are regarded as Australian native wild animals and enjoy the same treatment as protected animals.
But in private places, farmland or some wild environments, people can kill at will. In these areas, Australian wild dogs are treated as ordinary stray dogs. For example, in some densely populated areas in southeastern Australia, the number of wild dogs in Australia is decreasing due to habitat loss and being killed by humans.
From the genetic factors, according to the modern biological classification, it is easy to know that Australian wild dogs are not a new species, and in some areas, due to the decrease in the number of wild dogs, they mate with domestic dogs more frequently, and their genetic purity is also reduced to some extent.
But in reality, it is difficult for us to define their identity. After all, the problem we have to face is not only academic, but also humanistic care, because once Australian wild dogs are recognized as no different from ordinary stray dogs, it means that they are not protected by law. Where will their future destiny go? No one can predict.
? Identity? Academically, affecting the fate of wild dogs in Australia, there is no doubt that wild dogs in Australia do not show the characteristics that many independent species should have, so there is no way to define them as a new species at present, and they are indeed developed from domestic dogs. Although 5000 years is a long time, compared with the evolution time of most species, it is simply too little.
However, from the aspects of human emotion, morality and history, the dingo has lived in Australia for thousands of years and came here with primitive humans, so it is obviously a unique species in Australia.
In fact, people will argue endlessly about the identity of Australian wild dogs, mainly because once this identity is implemented, it will lead them to two completely different fate directions. If Australian wild dogs are judged as endemic to Australia, they will be protected by law and enjoy the same treatment as other protected animals.
Once they are recognized as just an ordinary stray dog, like other domestic dogs in the wild, it means that they are not protected by law and people can hunt freely, which will undoubtedly bring disaster to Australian wild dogs.
Australian wild dog
Wild dogs are the only large carnivores in Australia, so they are also the only beasts that can hurt cattle, sheep and other livestock. Australia has a fence more than 5,000 kilometers long, extending along the most densely populated areas, from South Australia to the eastern coastline of Queensland, to isolate wild dogs in Australia from the developed sheep industry in the southeast, so that they will not be preyed by wild dogs. It can be seen that it is a very common and headache phenomenon for Australian wild dogs to prey on domestic animals.
Therefore, once they are classified as ordinary stray dogs and are not protected by law, farmers will spare no effort to kill them until they are eliminated.
The ecological function of Australian wild dogs has actually developed to this day. Australian wild dogs are no longer just stray dogs, at least in the ecological environment, they play an important role.
Since the disappearance of the marsupial lion and the marsupial wolf, all animals in Australia, large and small, except the Australian wild dog, have lost their niche. Therefore, in today's natural environment in Australia, the role of wild dogs is very similar to that of the original marsupials, and their niches are the same.
As the only large carnivore in Australia, Australian wild dogs not only prey on herbivores such as wombats and kangaroos, but also kill carnivores such as wild cats and red foxes.
Australian wild dogs prey on wild cats
Australia is a place where exotic species are easy to flood. Wild cats and red foxes are alien species, which have reached the point of flooding. They are crazy about killing small animals. Many Australian native species are extinct because of red foxes and wild cats, such as desert kangaroos and crescent-tailed kangaroos.
The existence of wild dogs in Australia has inhibited the population development of red foxes and wild cats to a certain extent, which plays a vital role in maintaining the local ecological balance. Once this link in the food chain is missing, the whole ecosystem will be in jeopardy.
red fox
What people have observed? Wild dog pen? There are huge differences in landscape between the two sides. On the side with Australian wild dogs, there is less vegetation coverage and the desert becomes scattered and flat. On the side where there are no wild dogs, there are more plants in both quantity and variety.
Why is there such a difference? After in-depth study, it is found that there are wild dogs in Australia, which will inhibit the development of foxes and wild cats, so the number of foxes and wild cats here is relatively small, and the main prey of wild dogs is some medium and large herbivores, which makes there are a large number of small and micro rodents such as mice and rabbits. They eat vegetation crazily, and desertification is naturally serious.
Wild dog fence
On the other side where there are no wild dogs, there are many foxes and wild cats. They mainly feed on small rodents, which inhibits the development of such animals, so the degree of vegetation being eaten is not so serious, and the number and types of vegetation are naturally more.
wildcat
In fact, Australian wild dogs have completely replaced wombats in their ecological roles. It is a key species in the Australian environment and plays an irreplaceable role in controlling the number of kangaroos, wombats and other animals, as well as inhibiting the development of foxes and wild cats.
Perhaps at the beginning, they were just a kind of dispensable and even harmful stray dogs, but after thousands of years of development, Australia's ecological environment has been inseparable from them. Once this character is missing, the ending is predictable. What about this picture of wild dogs in Australia? Id card? How? Is a very important and cautious thing.