Many feral dogs (wild dogs) are actually descendants of domesticated breeds. Contrary to what is commonly thought, feral dogs whose recent ancestors were domestic animals can adapt quite well to life without human companions.
They do not always depend upon human garbage for their food supply. Many feral dogs become adept hunters, and they may cover a range of 130 km2. They do not depend only on meat for their diet. They also eat both cultivated and wild vegetables and fruit. It's not uncommon for feral dogs to revert to a "pack" lifestyle as well. Pack behaviours may include shared rearing of pups and nocturnal (dusk to dawn) activity.
If feral dogs' recent ancestors were domestic breeds, they at first form motley packs of various shapes and sizes, depending on the mixture of breeds from which they derive. But if they remain free and reproduce, after a few generations of natural selection, the offspring tend toward a common body form (morphology). They generally resemble German Shepherds in build, but are smaller, about the size of a coyote. The surviving packs eventually resemble primitive dogs (also called pariah dogs, because they were unwelcome in most human communities).
Primitive (Pariah) Dogs
While some sources define primitive dogs somewhat disparagingly as half-wild mongrels, a true primitive dog is not a mutt that has been separated from its human companions. The dam and puppies found in an abandoned shack by the Humane Society, for example, are unlikely to be primitive dogs, even if they act "wild." They are usually abandoned dogs reverting to a feral state.
Primitive dogs (also called pye dogs or pi dogs, as well as pariah dogs) descend from dogs that followed human migration throughout the globe, living on the edge of camps. But unlike domestic dogs, they have kept to themselves and bred largely without human intervention.
Across the globe, primitive dogs demonstrate similar morphology and and behaviours.
]The Long-term Primitive Morphotype _ wolfish appearance_ wedge shaped head _ pointed muscle _ almond eyes _ erect ears _ long curved tail
What Primitive Dogs Tell Us
Modern dog breeds derive from those primitive dogs that became domestic animals and migrated with ancient human companions across continents and oceans.
One possible ancestor of both modern and primitive dogs is the Indian Plains wolf. DNA evidence reveals that both primitive dogs and recognized domestic breeds share their ancestors with the Australian dingo (sometimes classified as C. lupus dingo, but more often classified as a subspecies of domestic dog, C.lupus familiaris_dingo.
While the dingo is considered a wild dog, it has a long history of affiliation with humans and was brought to Australia by human migrants from Indonesia between 3000 and 8000 years ago. The Dingo's cousin, the New Guinea Singing Dog, originally classified as a separate species, Canis hallstromi in 1957, was reclassified in 1969 as subspecies of dingo. The classification of canine species is complex because most canines can interbreed.
Dogs vs. Wolves
According to Susan Crockford's paper, Native Dog Types in North America, presented at the 30th congress of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association 2005 in Mexico City, "Dogs appear to have generated on at least three separate occasions (perhaps more) from geographically distinct ancestral populations of wolf" (ie: three different subspecies).
Crockford adds that "such multiple domestication events from geographically distinct subspecies of wolf could perhaps account for some of the variation we see amongst early prehistoric dogs."
Yet despite the possibility that dogs may have been created from wolves multiple times, early dogs were similar in many ways. "All were robust and well proportioned, but similar in general conformation: in all cases, slight differences in size are virtually all that distinguish dogs for thousands of years regardless of where they lived," says Crockford.
According to Susan Crockford, early dogs also "share several features, including a much shortened facial region, crowded teeth, and smaller overall size compared to Contemporaneous local wolves."
The Dog in the Americas Prior to European Contact
Crockford notes that DNA analysis supports theories that dogs accompanied human migrants from different parts of Asia over centuries. Each time peoples crossed the Bering Strait, they brought their dogs with them. Both dogs and their human companions spread through ancient North and South America.
The peoples of the America's created diverse breeds dogs throughout the hemisphere to meet their needs for hunting, transportation, religious ceremony, and companionship.
An interesting example is the North Coast Wool Dog. Bred by First Nations (Aboriginal peoples) of British Columbia, Canada, and Northern Washington State, USA, the dog was prized for a remarkable coat of thick wool which the people harvested and wove into ceremonial blankets.
The First Nations went to considerable lengths to keep Northwest Coast Wool Dog strains pure. For example, when they could not guard them, they left them on islands with buried caches of food. They limited the reproduction of their less-valued primitive dogs.
The First Nations of southern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and lower Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada; and Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA) also kept common village dogs, as did most other Aboriginal peoples on the continent.
These dogs resembled the semi-wild primitive dogs still found in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Common village dogs closely resemble a modern day breed: the Carolina Dog.
The Carolina Dog
The Carolina dog in the southern United States may descend from primitive or village dogs kept by Native American tribes or from European dogs who, after decades of isolation from humans, other domestic dogs, and coyotes (with which dogs can interbreed), simply reverted to their wild roots.
The Carolina Dog's recognition as a distinct type of dog is the result of the observation of a researcher who had done prior work with the Australian Dingo. Lehr Brisbin, Jr. of the University of Georgia, an expert in the study of primitive dogs, began working with semi-wild dogs he found in the lowlands of South Carolina after noting their similarity to Australian dingoes.
The Carolina dog's ginger coat is also seen in dingoes and other primitive dogs, such as the Chindo-Kae of Korea. They hunt in pack formation, using techniques not commonly seen in domestic dogs. But, unlike primitive dogs, which revert to an annual breeding pattern, the Carolina dog still breeds as many as three times a year.
DNA analysis of Carolina dogs places them at the base of the canine tree with other primitive dogs. This helps us understand the similarity between Carolina Dogs and Australian Dingoes It is no wonder that the Carolina dog breeders like to call their breed "American Dingoes."
Design For Dogs
The relationship between dingoes, other primitive dogs, and modern breeds intrigues dog lovers and scientists alike. While the effects of the dog's relationship with humans has impacted both dog behaviour and human society in ways they we still don't fully understand, we do know this:
The strong family resemblance between primitive and semi-feral dogs across the globe is best explained by Darwin's theory of natural selection. Natural selection is not really a force; it is simply the fact that only certain clusters of traits enable a dog to survive in the wild.
The survival of the dogs that display that narrow band of traits (together with the early deaths of those that do not) ensures that the traits are eventually displayed in most offspring.
That is why wild dogs tend to look alike across the globe, regardless of their origin, and why dogs that go wild revert, after a number of generations, to that common type.
The surviving dogs usually continue to carry all the potential traits that can produce a Pomeranian. But artificial selection, a form of intelligent design, is required to recover those traits, by segregating the dog from the unchecked forces of nature.
Link of Interest:
New Guinea Singing Dog
Dingo and Other Primitive Dogs (Working Dog Web)
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Note: See also Prehistoric humans: Is Rover's Ancestry the Stuff of Fairy Tales?