Examples of dingoes' colouring

The dingo (canis lupus dingo) is believed to have been bred from the Iranian wolf, but it is even more closely related to modern dogs than it is to wolves. Most likely, dingoes were at one point kept as primitive hunters and guardians by the people of Southeast Asia, but upon being introduced to Australia thousands of years ago, went back to living in the wild. Similar dogs can be found throughout Southeast Asia - the dingo is technically not strictly an australian 'breed'. Regardless of origin, it is however considered a pretty much unchanged descendant of the early ancestor of the dog.

Because it is considered to be such an old and mostly unchanged type of dog, it may be of interest to study the dingo's colours. Perhaps the colours of the dingo can give an idea of what the first 'unusual' colours that cropped up when people started to selectively breed wolves/dogs were, and in return give us an idea of the history of dog colours. It should however be noted that dingoes do crossbreed with modern dogs, so it can be hard to pinpoint whether a colour was 'originally' found in the breed or has been crossed in at a later time.

Known dingo colours include:

• Clear sable is common

• Recessive red is likewise a common pattern, ranging in shade from cream to deep red

• Many dingoes exhibit urajiro markings

• Black masking is occasionally seen

• Black and tan is occasionally found

• Brindle has been known to occur

• Limited white spotting (mostly chest, feet and tailtip) is common

It is interesting to note that all of these are colours that are, today, spread around the world and can be found in a wide variety of breeds. This suggest they most likely are old mutations that appeared early and therefore were spread across the world as new breeds were developed. A more recent mutation would not have been spread to so many breeds (compare with a pattern like merle, which is found in a relatively small number of breeds, though the gene has been crossed into new breeds in recent years). This gives us a hint, that it is possible that among the first patterns that mutated from the wild wolf, we find sable, recessive red of various shades, masking, tanpoint, brindle and white spotting.

Below follows a small gallery illustrating some of the colours and shades found in the dingo.

A trio of sable and masked dingoes with limited white spotting

The 'classic' red dingo, white white feet and tailtip

A recessive red dingo of a cream shade and with urajiro markings

A dog from Borneo of clear dingo-type and with unmistakable irish spotting