A dingo is an ancient canine species which is native to only Australia. They play an important role in the ecology of the continent, but are also seen as a pest to the sheep industry because they attack the animals.

Dingo has been in the news lately as the Australian authorities revisit a 30-year-old dingo baby case after an emotional plea from the woman wrongly convicted of murdering her daughter.

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton wants her daughter's death certificate to state instead that a dingo was responsible for taking nine-week-old Azaria in 1980.

She published an open letter on her website (http://www.lindychamberlain.com/) on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - the 30th anniversary of the child's disappearance while the family camped near Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, the red monolith in the remote Outback.

"Our family will always remember today as the day truth was dragged in the dirt and trampled upon," she wrote. "But more than that it is the day our family was torn apart forever because we lost our beautiful little Azaria."