A large genetic survey reveals that the country’s so-called ‘wild dogs’ remain predominantly dingo, reshaping debates over conservation and wildlife management.
Australian dingoes. Image credit: Sharkolot.
“Dingoes fulfill a unique ecological role in Australian ecosystems, becoming the sole terrestrial apex predator on the mainland (and several offshore islands) shortly after their arrival over 3,000 years before present,” said Adelaide University researcher Yassine Souilmi and colleagues.
“Culturally, they hold great significance to many Indigenous Australians, often appearing in ancestral songlines as key contributors to ecological and cultural balance.”
“However, dingoes have been involved in ongoing conflicts with livestock farmers since the early colonial period (1800s), resulting in the implementation of dingo management measures across Australia.”
In their new study, the authors analyzed more than 300 free-roaming canines across Australia, and found that, on average, just 11.7% of their DNA comes from domestic dogs.
Levels were highest in southeastern Australia, particularly Victoria and New South Wales, and much lower in the remote north and west.
“For decades, different genetic tests have given conflicting answers about how much European dog ancestry free-roaming dingoes carry,” Dr. Souilmi said.
“Our study used pre-colonial dingo DNA as a true reference to resolve that disagreement, and we have concluded the vast majority of free-roaming canines in Australia are overwhelmingly dingo.”
The finding, which was also informed by Ancient DNA records, has major implications for how the species is classified and the way the population should be managed.
“The ‘wild dog’ label hides important biological and cultural differences. A predominantly dingo individual is not the same as a stray domestic dog,” Dr. Souilmi said.
“Future management should be regionally informed, and developed in close partnership with Indigenous Australian communities, for whom dingoes have been companions and kin for thousands of years.”
The new testing technique remains accurate with few DNA markers, making affordable, large-scale ancestry screening feasible for the first time.
“Because our test works reliably with so few markers, ancestry screening is finally affordable for routine use,” said first author Dr. Shyamsundar Ravishankar, also from Adelaide University.
“Wildlife agencies no longer need a whole-genome budget to get a trustworthy answer.”
The study also resolved Australia’s dingoes into eight genetically distinct populations, including two previously undescribed groups in northern and central Australia.
After accounting for domestic dog ancestry, southeastern populations were found to be much less genetically diverse than those in the north and center.
The Mallee (Big Desert) dingoes of northwestern Victoria stood out, with even lower ancestral diversity than the small, isolated K’gari population.
“Once we remove the domestic dog component, the picture changes,” said co-author Dr. Nhi Chau Nguyen, also from Adelaide University.
“Dog ancestry has boosted overall variation of Southeastern dingoes, but it has eroded some of what makes these dingoes genetically distinct.”
“We also confirmed earlier work showing that gene flow from European dogs into dingoes peaked in the mid-20th century, especially the 1960s, coinciding with rapid post-war population growth and farming intensification in southeastern Australia.”
The results appear in the journal Conservation Letters.
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Shyamsundar Ravishankar et al. 2026. Paleogenomics-Informed Inferences of European Dog Admixture Enables Scalable Dingo Conservation. Conservation Letters 19 (3): e70052; doi: 10.1111/con4.70052