Sleeping Dingo
Sleepy, restless dingo lying comfortably on the ground. The leaves helps to make the scene a little less hostile and more friendly as if it was about to tease the animal. The interesting bokeh pattern at the back was caused by me focusing through a metal fence.
Aboriginal people across the continent adopted the dingo as a companion animal, using it to assist with hunting and for warmth on cold nights. (The terms "two-dog night" and "three-dog night" are believed to come from Aboriginal idiom, describing the overnight temperature.)
When European settlers first arrived in Australia, dingoes were tolerated, even welcomed at times. That changed rapidly when sheep became an important part of the European economy. Dingoes were trapped, shot on sight, and poisoned—often regardless of whether they were truly wild or belonged to Aboriginal people. In the 1880s, construction of the great Dingo Fence began. The Dingo Fence was designed to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It would eventually stretch 8500 kilometres; from near Toowoomba through thousands of miles of arid country to the Great Australian Bight and would be (at that time) the longest man-made structure in the world. It was only partly successful: dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states to this day, and although the fence helped reduce losses of sheep to predators, this was counterbalanced by increased pasture competition from rabbits and kangaroos.
When European settlers first arrived in Australia, dingoes were tolerated, even welcomed at times. That changed rapidly when sheep became an important part of the European economy. Dingoes were trapped, shot on sight, and poisoned—often regardless of whether they were truly wild or belonged to Aboriginal people. In the 1880s, construction of the great Dingo Fence began. The Dingo Fence was designed to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It would eventually stretch 8500 kilometres; from near Toowoomba through thousands of miles of arid country to the Great Australian Bight and would be (at that time) the longest man-made structure in the world. It was only partly successful: dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states to this day, and although the fence helped reduce losses of sheep to predators, this was counterbalanced by increased pasture competition from rabbits and kangaroos.
(courtesy of wikipedia.com)
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