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Falkland Fox |
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He is a wild animal |
Origin |
Falkland Islands | |
Translation |
Francis Vandersteen | |
This breed is also known as |
Falkland Wolf
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| The possession of this animal is not authorized Royal Decree establishing the list of mammals not kept for production purposes that may be kept (M.B. 24.08.2009) |
| The Falkland Fox or Falkland Wolf (Dusicyon australis, formerly Canis antarcticus), also known locally as the Warrah or occasionally the Antarctic Wolf, was the only land mammal indigenous to the Falkland Islands. The last known specimen died out in 1876 on the archipelago's western island. It is the only canid species to have become extinct in historical times. The closest relative to the Dusicyon genus among southern hemisphere foxes is the Culpeo or Patagonian fox, which was introduced to the Falklands. The Falkland fox's fur was tawny, and the tip of its tail was white. Its diet is unknown. Given the absence of island rodents, it probably included land-nesting birds such as geese and penguins, larvae and insects, as well as marine carrion. It is sometimes described as living in burrows. The unusual geographical distribution of this animal (the only other canine species native to oceanic islands are the insular grey fox from California and Darwin's fox from Chile, but these habitats are not as remote as the Falklands) and some details of its skull suggest that this fox originally accompanied indigenous populations visiting the islands as a semi-domestic pet. If so, the ancestral form, located on the South American continent, would have become extinct during the last Ice Age. DNA analyses of museum specimens have been less than convincing as to the exact parentage of this animal, some even suggesting hybridization (during the domestication process) with a relative or ancestor of the coyote. It is not known whether this would have been biologically possible. Another possibility is that, during the Ice Age, an overland passage between the Falkland Islands and South America enabled fox ancestors to cross the distance between them. In any case, the Falkland wolf is a biogeographical mystery. In the Falklands, the species is commemorated in various ways: one of the rivers in the east of the Falklands is called the Warrah River, and it is also depicted on the local fifty-pence coin. One of the islands' ecological publications is entitled The Warrah. |
English (United Kingdom)