Looking at the existing species in Australia, most of them belong to marsupials, among which kangaroos and wombats are world-renowned and are representative animals in Australia. However, there is an animal that is not well known but controversial. It has caused great controversy among Australian academics and ordinary people. This animal is the dingo, also known as dingo.
Australian wild dog
People's controversy over Australian wild dogs mainly comes from one aspect, that is, its classification. Some people say that wild dogs in Australia have become a unique and representative species after so many years of long development, and should be divided into a unique species, which is different from ordinary wild dogs and thus protected by law.
Some people think that it is just an ordinary wild dog, which is no different from a domestic dog wandering in the wild and coming back. It cannot be regarded as an independent species. In addition, it will destroy some local industries, so it should be classified as ordinary wild dogs. In fact, people's statements are not unreasonable, no matter from which aspect, they are all reasonable.
The development history of wild dogs in Australia is actually an exotic species. There are no dogs in Australia. They were brought to Australia more than 5,000 years ago and have taken root in this land ever since. Compared with kangaroo, platypus and other native species that have lived in Australia and evolved for more than 65.438+0.5 billion years, Australian wild dogs are still very good. New? Many people are new here, so we can't treat them as protozoa.
When it comes to wild dogs in Australia, we have to mention an extinct but equally representative species-marsupials. It can be said that Australian wild dogs have a great responsibility for the extinction of marsupials.
Tasmanian wolf
Although the only large carnivore in Australia today is wild dogs, there are still some in this land if time goes by. Hero? Yes, such as marsupials, Diptera, marsupials and so on.
The marsupial wolf is a carnivore, which was once widely distributed in Australia and New Guinea. It mainly lives in the open areas of forests or grasslands. It has a unique appearance. Its main color is yellow, but it has dark stripes on its back. The weight is about 30 kilograms, and the weight is 1.8 meters, so the whole body will look slender.
Judging from the terrain where marsupials like to inhabit, they are not lonely predators, or live in groups, or live in families. For example, gregarious animals such as grey wolves and Asian lions living in Asian forests like to move in the open areas of forests, which is beneficial to the animals that hunt in groups.
The marsupial wolf was born in Australia more than 4 million years ago. Because of its small size and slow speed, the marsupial wolf has existed in Australia for a long time. Small role? Until powerful carnivores such as marsupials became extinct.
Image map of marsupial lion
The marsupial lion soon disappeared from this land because of human feet, which made the marsupial wolf enter a short heyday, but this situation was quickly broken. With the development of the human world, the conflict between marsupials and humans has intensified, resulting in their being killed as pests. Of course, the extinction of marsupials has a lot to do with Australian wild dogs.
More than 5000 years ago, dogs were brought to this land as loyal assistants and good partners of human beings at that time. At first, because the number of dogs was small and they all lived in places where people gathered, they did not pose any threat to marsupials until some dogs were out of people's control.
At first, these uncontrolled dogs only moved around human villages, but with the gradual recovery of wildness, they became powerful predators in the wild in Australia.
Because dogs are born to live in groups, some dogs wandering in the wild quickly formed a huge team to attack the surrounding livestock and poultry. At that time, humans didn't know it was a wild dog, so they put this? Marijuana? Directly buckled on the bag wolf that people thought was more threatening at that time (although the bag wolf would), which led to deeper resentment against the bag wolf and brought greater threat to the bag wolf.
Wolves prey on poultry.
Besides marsupials, wild dogs? Back pot? In addition, it will directly form a strong competition with it. As mentioned above, dogs are naturally gregarious and gather in the wild to form a huge group of wild dogs, which will have a strong impact on the life of marsupials. Dogs domesticated by humans are more competitive in their eating habits. They can eat other foods besides meat. In battle, wild dogs are not small in size, but form larger groups. To be exact, marsupials are no match for them.
The living space of the marsupial wolf was further compressed by Australian wild dogs and finally withdrew from the historical stage. Nowadays, after historical changes, there are no large carnivores in Australia, and Australian wild dogs naturally become the best among them. In fact, the disappearance history of marsupials is basically the development history of Australian wild dogs.
Is it an endemic species or a common wild dog? The biggest controversy about dingo in Australia is whether it is endemic or dingo. Different people hold different views on this.
Mike, an ecologist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia? Lehnick wrote in Journal of Zoology 20 14: Compared with common wild dogs, Australian wild dogs have a flatter head and a longer snout. According to these characteristics, it can be concluded that the dingo in Australia is a unique species and should be given a name.
At first, this report caused great concern in Australia, and many people took it seriously, but then someone refuted him. Chris, a mammal taxonomist at the University of Adelaide? Helgen et al. mentioned in the paper of 20 17 that Australian wild dogs are a kind of wild domestic dogs, and should not be classified separately like poodles and rottweilers.
Biologist Stephen? Jackson also said: if Australian wild dogs can be classified as a unique species, then all those ancient dog breeds should have their own names, not general names? Dogs? .
In fact, in Australia, people's attitudes towards Australian wild dogs are also contradictory. For example, in some protected areas and parks, Australian wild dogs will be treated as wild animals, that is, protected, but in farmland, wild and private places, Australian wild dogs are allowed to be killed.
In most Australian states and territories where wild dogs live, the law allows landowners to kill wild dogs. Many environmentalists worry that if Australian wild dogs are not recognized as unique native animals, they will not be protected by law, and the consequences in the future can be imagined.
At present, the living conditions of Australian wild dogs have not reached the point of extinction. Australia has about 10000-50000. However, in some densely populated areas, such as southeast Australia, the number of wild dogs is gradually decreasing, and due to the reduction of individual base, wild dogs begin to cross with domestic dogs, and the genetic purity is also decreasing.
Wild dogs or endemic species? It's really hard to draw a conclusion. In addition, this controversy can cause a great deal of discussion, which is not only academic Excellence, but also has certain influence on decision-making, because once Australian wild dogs are not recognized as endemic species, it means that there is no legal protection, which is very likely to affect their future development.
Australian wild dogs have replaced the niche of marsupials. There is a very large building in Australia, that is, a wild dog fence that is more than 5,000 kilometers long. People spread out along the most densely populated areas and built a wall to separate wild dogs in Australia from sheep farming in the southeast.
It seems that the Australian people especially like to repair fences. When rabbits invaded, people responded by repairing fences, and now they are also dealing with the threat of wild dogs. Australian wild dogs are usually considered as pests in the local area. They will prey on sheep and other livestock, which has a great impact on local industries.
Later, with the further study of ecology, it was found that wild dogs would kill carnivores such as wild cats and foxes, while kangaroos and wombats would also be killed by wild dogs, while animals such as rabbits and small rodents would live relatively well because they were too small. Disdain? Natural enemies such as wild cats and foxes are suppressed by wild dogs. Gradually, with the increase of these small animals, they eat vegetation on the desert, so we can clearly see that with the wild dog side, the desert becomes flatter and more dispersed.
On the other side of the fence, due to the lack of wild dogs in Australia, there are more wild cats and foxes. They control small mammals, and the more plants there are, the stronger their sand-fixing ability is.
In fact, today, Australian wild dogs have become the key species in the local ecology, replacing the niche of marsupials and restricting the population development of some wild animals in Australia.
For example, the number one natural enemy of Australian wildcats is Australian wild dogs. There is evidence that wild dogs will kill wild cats and foxes, because these two animals not only compete with wild dogs for food, but also pose a threat to wild dog cubs. Australian wild dogs will kill them for whatever reason.
Although the wild dog was not native to Australia at first, it came here entirely because of human beings, but after so many years of development, although it can not be recognized and reclassified in some aspects, it is undoubtedly the largest carnivore in Australia from the ecological environment and plays a key role in maintaining the stability of the local ecosystem. Once wild dogs disappear, it is hard to imagine Australia without large carnivores. Who should replace this niche market? In a word, the identification of wild dogs in Australia is not only a scientific issue, but also affects their future fate.