photo © Goran tek-en
photo © Ashleyflashley
The dingo occurs commensally with the human species in Indochina. Its geographical distribution seems to fit the notion that the domestic dog is descended from the wolf because the latter species – despite surviving in India – is absent from tropical southeast Asia. What has been overlooked is the puzzling lack of any jackal in Indochina given that the side-striped jackal occurs at similar latitudes and in similar vegetation in Africa. Because the dingo ecologically resembles jackals more than the wolf, the geographical pattern also supports an alternative view that the ancestor of both domestic dog and dingo was an unknown, extinct species of jackal.
photo © Thimindu
photo © Pavan Kunder
photo © Jarrod Amoore
