Topic: Study shows that Australian dingoes were domesticated

[Mooning Freddy]

It's old news, but thought some of you might be interested in this story:

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/1323585/report-wild-dingos-remember-human-gestures-from-their-domestication-days

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/08/040815234309.htm

A study of Australian dingos showed that they understand human gestures much better than other wild canines like wolves.

At the tender age of four months, ordinary dogs will spontaneously investigate objects that humans point to or even just gaze at.
In contrast, wolves-even when reared by people-only attend to such gestures after months of intensive training.
Bradley P Smith and his graduate adviser, Carla A Litchfield of the University of South Australia in Magill, wondered how dingoes measure up.

They presented seven tame but untrained dingoes with two flowerpots, one containing meat.
In a series of trials, an experimenter tried out ten gestures to indicate the pot hiding the treat.
The dingoes raced straight to it in response to most of the gestures, such as pointing at, tapping on, or standing directly behind the pot.
When the experimenter merely gazed at it, however, the dingoes didn't get the message.

That study supports evidence that dingos were actually domesticated many years ago and brought to Australia by settlers from Southern Asia. However, something happened to the settlers 4,000 years ago, and after their masters were gone, the dingos reverted to their wild ways.

[X]

This doesn't surprise me as Dingos are not indigenous to Australia. They are decedents of Dogs that the colonial immigrants had brought over with them. so it should be very easy to re-domesticate them. But you still gotta be careful as they are now a wild dog.