Physical Characteristics and Taxonomic Status of Wild Canids, Canis-Familiaris, From the Eastern Highlands of Victoria

摘要

Coat colours and various physical characteristics were recorded for a sample of canids collected overn4 years from the eastern highlands of Victoria. Only one domestic dog was identified from the 555ncanids collected, and after it and all juveniles and smaller subadults were excluded, the remainder werenassigned to various classifications based upon their presumed physical similarity to pure dingoes, andnalso upon coat colour. For the 414 wild canids classified further, the frequencies of the most commonncoat colours were: ginger, 534%; black and tan, 30.0%; brindle, 6.5%; black, 5.8%; and whitenplus another colour, 4.1%. Cleaned skulls of adult canids were measured and subjected to a canonicalnvariate analysis, which previously was developed to differentiate domestic dog skulls from those ofndingoes. No relationship between canonical score and coat colour or any of the other recorded physicalncharacteristics was found, and no physical characteristics exclusively diagnostic of pure dingoes werenidentified. It was concluded that most of the present population could best be regarded as a groupnof dingo-like canids exhibiting an increased range of variability in characteristics such as skull shape,nphysical conformation and coat colour, although canids still exist which are probably similar innappearance to the original dingoes of the eastern highlands. These physical changes in the populationnhave been caused by the establishment and subequent independent assortment of some domestic dogngenes into the original dingo gene pool through hybridisation, but the changes that have occurred arenrelatively small. The processes by which these changes are presumed to have occurred are discused.