Despite the best efforts of a dozen generations to exterminate the dingo from mainland Australia, it maintains a viable stronghold – from the outback to the Coral Sea. Highly adaptable, it lives in the driest deserts, the thickest forests and the highest mountains, enduring extremes of temperature – and human temperament.
Dingoes were revered by the original people of Australia and yet reviled by the nation’s early European settlers. Return of the Dingo will provide a definitive portrait of this highly intelligent, social canine that only recently earned recognition as a species in its own right. Filmed over several years, Return of the Dingo captures the natural history of two distinctly different wild dingo packs: one at home in the outback, the other living in the Australian Alps. Intimate pack behaviour will be revealed: complex pecking orders, nuanced communication, mating and pupping. Dramatic highlights include encounters with predators (such as wedge-tailed eagles and goannas) and the alpha-couple teaching their offspring to hunt.
This provocative, intimate film endeavours to lift the fog of ignorance that has long clouded the way many feel about dingoes. In revealing the wild dog’s remarkable intelligence, social complexity and resilience, Return of the Dingo aims to return the species to its rightful place among Australia’s most celebrated fauna.