Australia's dingo fence: the longest fence in the world

Transcript

Look at Australia. Okay, that's better. And if we take a closer look, nope, not there. There it is. That's a fence. But not just any fence. It's the longest fence in the world, stretching more than 5.5,000 kilometers across three Australian states. That's roughly the distance from London to New York. And its job is to keep out this guy, the Dingo. It's a wild dog about the size of a medium-sized dog you'd have at home. It can reach speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, and its favorite prey, kangaroos, and other smaller animals. But in the late 18th century, Europeans arrived in Australia and brought something new, sheep. And that added a lot more variety to the Dingo's menu. The farmers weren't happy. At first they fought the Dingo's with traps and guns, but the losses on farms kept growing, so they decided to build a fence. In some places, fences already existed, so they were improved, extended, and connected into one giant fence, with sheep country on one side, and much of Australia's Dingo population on the other.

Transcribed automatically from the video, so small errors are possible.