<P> Similar to how Europeans acquired dingoes, the Aboriginal people of Australia acquired dogs from the immigrants very quickly . This process was so fast that Francis Barrallier (surveyor on early expeditions around the colony at Port Jackson) discovered in 1802 that five dogs of European origin were there before him . One theory holds that other domestic dogs will adopt the role of the "pure" dingo . Introduced animals, such as the water buffalo and the domestic cat, have been adopted into the indigenous Aboriginal culture in the forms of rituals, traditional paintings and dreamtime stories . </P> <P> Most of the published myths originate from the Western Desert and show a remarkable complexity . In some stories, dingoes are the central characters, while in others, they are only minor ones . One time, it is an ancestor from the dreamtime who created humans and dingoes or gave them their current shape . There are stories about creation, socially acceptable behaviour, and explanations why some things are the way they are . There are myths about shapeshifters (human to dingo or vice versa), "dingo - people," and the creation of certain landscapes or elements of those landscapes, like waterholes or mountains . </P> <P> Livestock farming commenced expanding across Australia from the early 1800s, which led to conflict between the dingo and graziers . Sheep, and to a lesser extent cattle, are an easy target for dingoes . The pastoralists and the government bodies that support this industry have shot, trapped, and poisoned dingoes or destroyed dingo pups in their dens . After two centuries of persecution, the dingo or dingo--dog hybrids can still be found across most of the continent . </P> <P> Research on the real extent of the damage and the reason for this problem only started recently . Livestock can die from many causes and, when the carcass is found, it is often difficult to determine with certainty the cause of death . Since the outcome of an attack on livestock depends to a high degree on the behaviour and experience of the predator and the prey, only direct observation is certain to determine whether an attack was by dingoes or another domestic dog . Even the existence of remnants of the prey in the scat of wild dogs do not prove they are pests, since wild dogs also eat carrion . Exact numbers or reliable estimates of the damage caused by wild dogs are, therefore, hard to obtain and are seldom reliable . Even if livestock is not a big part of the dingo's diet, the extent of damage dingoes could potentially cause to the livestock industry could be much larger because of wanton killing . </P>

Dingoes are a breed of dog from australia