A woman who thought she had adopted a puppy after an eagle dropped it in her garden was shocked to discover it wasn’t a dog at all.
The lady, from Bright in Australia, found the creature on her property in 2019 and initially couldn’t tell if it was a fox or a dog.
After much debate online, the woman took the pup, now named Wandi, to the Alpine Animal Hospital. Staff sent off a DNA sample for testing to find out what species Wandi really was.
While waiting for the results, Wandi was sent to the Australian Dingo Foundation’s sanctuary. After weeks of waiting, it was revealed that Wandi was a 100 percent pure Victoria Highlands dingo.
The sanctuary announced on Instagram that Wandi would join their breeding program to help increase the diversity of their captive dingo population.
READ MORE: Dingoes had ‘almost human’ status in pre-colonial Australia, archaeologists find
The foundation believes that the baby dingo was snatched from his home by an eagle.
They said: “We believe Wandi was stolen by an eagle and dropped as he had sustained wounds on his back, and his nails were worn down suggesting he had travelled far on foot before being found.”
When he was first discovered, many people mistakenly thought he was a fox.
“I reckon it’s a fox and you’ve got a little problem,” one person commented on Facebook.
Dingoes are Australia’s only native dog and are protected in national parks under the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
However, in some parts of Queensland, they are considered pests.
An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.
