Dingo in the context of Taxa

The wolf (Canis lupus; pl.: wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey wolves, as popularly understood, include only naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest wild extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, grey, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.

Of all members of the genus Canis, the wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting, as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large prey, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behaviour, including individual or group howling. It travels in nuclear families, consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring. Offspring may leave to form their own packs on the onset of sexual maturity and in response to competition for food within the pack. Wolves are also territorial, and fights over territory are among the principal causes of mortality. The wolf is mainly a carnivore and feeds on large wild hooved mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage. Single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than do large packs. Pathogens and parasites, notably the rabies virus, may infect wolves.

The thylacine (/ˈθaɪləsiːn/; binomial name Thylacinus cynocephalus), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a species of carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea until it went extinct. The thylacine died out in New Guinea and mainland Australia around 3,600–3,200 years ago, prior to the arrival of Europeans, possibly because of the introduction of the dingo, whose earliest record dates to around the same time, but which never reached Tasmania. Prior to European settlement, around 5,000 remained in the wild on the island of Tasmania. Beginning in the nineteenth century, they were perceived as a threat to the livestock of farmers and bounty hunting was introduced. The last known of its species died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. The thylacine is widespread in popular culture and is a cultural icon in Australia.

The thylacine was known as the Tasmanian tiger because of the dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, and it was called the Tasmanian wolf because it resembled a medium- to large-sized canid. The name thylacine is derived from thýlakos meaning 'pouch' and -ine meaning 'pertaining to', and refers to the marsupial pouch. Both sexes had a pouch. The females used theirs for rearing young, and the males used theirs as a protective sheath, covering the external reproductive organs. The animal had a stiff tail and could open its jaws to an unusual extent. Recent studies and anecdotal evidence on its predatory behaviour suggest that the thylacine was a solitary ambush predator specialised in hunting small- to medium-sized prey. Accounts suggest that, in the wild, it fed on small birds and mammals. It was the only member of the genus Thylacinus and family Thylacinidae to have survived until modern times. Its closest living relatives are the other members of Dasyuromorphia, including the Tasmanian devil, from which it is estimated to have split 42–36 million years ago.

In the taxonomic treatment presented in the third (2005) edition of Mammal Species of the World, Canis lupus dingo is a taxonomic rank that includes both the dingo that is native to Australia and the New Guinea singing dog that is native to the New Guinea Highlands. It also includes some extinct dogs that were once found in coastal Papua New Guinea and the island of Java in the Indonesian Archipelago. In this treatment it is a subspecies of Canis lupus, the wolf (the domestic dog is treated as a different wolf subspecies), although other treatments consider the dog as a full species, with the dingo and its relatives either as a subspecies of the dog (as Canis familiaris dingo), a species in its own right (Canis dingo), or simply as an unnamed variant or genetic clade within the larger population of dogs (thus, Canis familiaris, not further differentiated). The genetic evidence indicates that the dingo clade originated from East Asian domestic dogs and was introduced through the Malay Archipelago into Australia, with a common ancestry between the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. The New Guinea singing dog is genetically closer to those dingoes that live in southeastern Australia than to those that live in the northwest.

The New Guinea singing dog or New Guinea Highland dog (Canis lupus hallstromi) is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in the New Guinea Highlands, on the island of New Guinea. Once considered to be a separate species in its own right, under the name Canis hallstromi, it is closely related to the Australian dingo. The dog is relatively unusual among canines; it is one of the few to be considered "barkless", and is known for the unusual "yodel"-like style of vocalizing that gives it its name.

In 1989, the Australian mammalogist Tim Flannery took a photo of a black-and-tan dog in Telefomin District. He noted that these dogs lived with local tribal peoples in the mountains, and that feral populations lived in the alpine and sub-alpine grasslands of the Star Mountains and the Wharton Range. The photo was published in his book, Mammals of New Guinea. In 2012, Australian wilderness-adventure guide Tom Hewett took a photo of a tawny, thick-coated dog in the Puncak Mandala region of West Papua, Indonesia. In 2016, a literature review found no definitive evidence that the earliest possible dogs, within captive populations of New Guinea singing dogs, were wild animals; successive generations of puppies were raised as members of village populations, thus being domestic dogs.