A wild canine endemic to many parts of Australia, the dingo generally inhabits grasslands and forests and is thought to have descended from semi-domesticated dogs. Despite the diversity of wildlife across Australia, dingoes are the continent’s largest terrestrial predator.
History
Interestingly, there’s no consensus regarding what the dingo actually is. It has been referred to as a wolf, dog, dingo, wild dog, and even a feral dog. In fact, researchers and scientists aren’t exactly sure where dingoes even came from. The most popular belief is that they’re the descendants of semi-domesticated dogs, but others suggest that they descended from a now extinct species of Asian wolf. Dingoes have even been known to mate with other domesticated dogs, making their classification even more challenging!