Wild dogs of this subspecies revert to a dingo-like rather than a wolf-like appearance. The only known secondary feral population in the Americas, the Caroline dog, was still encountered in the Savannah River section of South Carolina in 2007. Another wild (presumably secondary) population described in the mountains of Java as C. f. var. Tenggara Kohlbruge 1896 appears to be extinct. Presumably, it could represent a relict population of the originally wild C. familiaris, but although three specimens are in the Leiden Museum of Natural History, they have not been studied recently.