The dingo is a free-roaming dog found mainly in Australia, as well as southeast Asia, where it is said to have its origins. It is currently classified as a subspecies of the grey wolf, Canis lupus.

A dingo's habitat ranges from deserts to grasslands and the edges of forests. Dingoes will normally make their dens in deserted rabbit holes and hollow logs not too far from an essential supply of water.

The dingo is the largest terrestrial predator in Australia, and plays an important role as an apex predator. However, the dingo is seen as a pest by sheep farmers due to frequent attacks on livestock. Conversely, their predation on rabbits, kangaroos, and rats is of benefit to cattle ranchers.

For many Australians the dingo is a cultural icon, and because of this there is fear of the species becoming extinct, as has happened with the thylacine in Tasmania. This is thought to have happened in the 20th century, and the dingo is seen by many as being responsible for thylacine extinction on the Australian mainland about two thousand years earlier. Dingoes also have a prominent position in the culture of Aboriginal Australians as a part of stories and ceremonies, and they are depicted on rock carvings and cave paintings.

About 170 species (from insects to buffalo) have been identified as being part of the dingo diet. In general, livestock seems to make up only a small proportion of their diets. In continent-wide examinations, 80% of the diet of wild dogs consisted of 10 species: red kangaroo, swamp wallaby, cattle, dusky rat, magpie goose, common brushtail possum, long-haired rat, agile wallaby, European rabbit and the common wombat. This narrow range of major prey indicates these wild dogs are rather specialised, but in the tropical rain forests of North-Eastern Australia, dingoes are supposed to be opportunistic hunters of a wide range of mammals. In certain areas, they tend to specialise on the most common prey, with a preference for medium to large-sized mammals. The consumption of domestic cats has also been proven. Non-mammalian prey is irregularly eaten and makes up only 10% of the dingo's diet. Big reptiles are only rarely captured, at least in Eastern Australia, although they are widespread. It is possible that especially big monitor lizards are too defensive and well-armed or simply able to flee fast enough into dens or climb trees.

Dietary composition varies from region to region. In the gulf region of Queensland, feral pigs and agile wallabies are the dingo's main prey. In the rain forests of the North, the main prey consists of magpie geese, rodents and agile wallabies. In the southern regions of the Northern Territory, the dogs mainly eat European rabbits, rodents, lizards, and red kangaroo; in arid central Australia, rabbits, rodents, lizards, red kangaroo, and cattle carcasses; and in the dry North-West, eastern wallaroos and red kangaroo. In the deserts of the South-West they primarily eat rabbits and in the eastern and south-eastern highlands wallabies, possums, and wombats. To what extent the availability of rabbits influences the composition of the diet could not be clarified. However, because rabbit hemorrhagic disease killed a large part of the Australian rabbit population at the end of the 20th century, it is suspected that the primary prey of the dogs has changed in the affected areas. Also, on Fraser Island, fish were proven to be a part of the dingo diet. The main prey species, though, were bandicoots and several rodents. They also ate a lot of echidnas, crabs, small skinks, fruits, and other plants, as well as insects (mostly beetles). During these observations, only 10% of the examined faeces-samples contained human garbage (in earlier studies 50% were reported).

When scavenging for food, wild dogs (we presume the author is referring to all dogs free to roam, not just dingoes) primarily eat cattle and kangaroo carcasses. Dingoes in coastal regions regularly patrol the coast for dead fish, seals, penguins, and other washed-up birds.

Dingoes in general drink one litre of water a day in the summer and about half a litre a day in winter. During the winter in arid regions, dingoes could potentially live from the liquid in the bodies of their prey, as long as the number of prey is sufficient. Similarly, weaned cubs in central Australia are able to draw their necessary amounts of liquid from their food. There, regurgitation of water by the bitches for the cubs was observed. During lactation, females have no higher need of water than usual, since they consume the urine and faeces of the cubs and therefore recycle the water and keep the den clean.