The Australian Dingo is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to their wild Asian grey wolf parent species, Canis lupus. Since then, living largely apart from people and other dogs, together with the demands of Australian ecology, has caused them to develop features and instincts that distinguish them from all other canines. Dingoes have maintained ancient characteristics that unite them, along with their closest relatives from southeast Asia and the Pacific, into a taxon named after them, Canis lupus dingo, and which separate them from dogs classified as Canis lupus familiaris.

Dingoes play an important role in Australia's ecosystems; they are apex predators and the continent's largest terrestrial predator. Because of their attacks on livestock, dingoes and feral domesticated dogs are seen as pests by the sheep industry and the resultant control methods normally run counter to dingo conservation efforts. The cattle industry may benefit from the predation of dingoes on rabbits, kangaroos, and rats.

Today, it is estimated that the majority of the modern "dingoes" are also descended from more recently introduced domestic dogs. The number of these so-called dingo hybrids has increased significantly over the last decades, and the dingo is therefore now classified as vulnerable.