Everything about The Falkland Island Fox totally explained
The
Falkland Island Fox (
Dusicyon australis, formerly named
Canis antarcticus), also known as the
Warrah and occasionally as the
Falkland Islands Dog,
Falkland Island Wolf or
Antarctic Wolf, was the only native land
mammal of the
Falkland Islands. This
endemic canid became
extinct in
1876 (on
West Falkland island), the only known canid to have gone extinct in historical times. The most closely related
species to the monotypic
genus Dusicyon among
southern hemisphere foxes is
Pseudalopex griseus, the
culpeo or
Patagonian fox, which itself has been introduced to the Falkland Islands in modern times. It was known from both
West and
East Falkland, but it's unknown if the varieties were much differentiated.
The fur of the Falkland Island Fox had a tawny
colour. The tip of the tail was white. The diet is unknown. Due to the absence of native
rodents on the Falklands, its diet probably consisted of ground-nesting
birds such as
geese and
penguins, grubs and
insects, as well as
seashore scavenging (Allen 1942). They are sometimes said to have dwelt in burrows.
History
The first recorded sighting was by Capt. John Strong in
1692 (External Link
).
Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who established the first settlement in the Falkland Islands termed it a
loup-renard ("
fox-
wolf") When
Charles Darwin visited the islands in
1833 he named the species
Canis antarcticus and described it as common and tame. The settlers regarded the fox as a threat to their
sheep and organised poisoning and shooting on a massive scale. The absence of
forests led to the speedy success of the extermination campaign. This was facilitated by the animal's tameness, as is common in
insular species due to the absence of predators - trappers would lure the animal with a chunk of meat held in one hand, and kill it with a
knife or stick held in the other. However, it would defend itself from humans occasionally if it needed to, as Admiral George Grey noted when they landed on West Falkland at
Port Edgar (Falkland Islands) on December 17, 1836 -
» "I landed in the creek and had hardly put a foot on shore, when one of the foxes of the country was chased by Pilot. I ran up as they were fighting and came to the poor dog's assistance who had nearly met his match, and a
rifle ball soon settled the business, but the Pilot had received a terrible bite in the leg."
A live Warrah was taken to London Zoo,
England in
1868, but survived only a few years.
(External Link). In
1880, post-extinction,
Thomas Huxley classified it as related to the
coyote. In 1914, Oldfield Thomas moved it into the genus
Dusicyon, with the
culpeo and South American foxes.
Darwin's description
Darwin writing about his 1834 visit to the Falklands in
The Voyage of the Beagle has the following to say -
» The only quadruped native to the islands is a large wolf-like fox (Canis antarcticus), which is common to both East and West Falkland. I've no doubt it's a peculiar species, and confined to this archipelago; because many sealers, Gauchos, and Indians, who have visited these islands, all maintain that no such animal is found in any part of South America. Molina, from a similarity in habits, thought that this was the same with his culpeu but I've seen both, and they're quite distinct. These wolves are well known, from Byron's account of their tameness and curiosity, which the sailors, who ran into the water to avoid them, mistook for fierceness. To this day their manners remain the same. They have been observed to enter a tent, and actually pull some meat from beneath the head of a sleeping seaman. The Gauchos also have frequently in the evening killed them, by holding out a piece of meat in one hand, and in the other a knife ready to stick them. As far as I'm aware, there's no other instance in any part of the world, of so small a mass of broken land, distant from a continent, possessing so large an aboriginal quadruped peculiar to itself. Their numbers have rapidly decreased; they're already banished from that half of the island which lies to the eastward of the neck of land between St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley Sound. Within a very few years after these islands shall have become regularly settled, in all probability this fox will be classed with the dodo, as an animal which has perished from the face of the earth."
Evolution
It has been speculated that the unusual distribution of this animal (the only other canine species native to
oceanic islands are the
Island Fox of California, and
Darwin's Fox of Chile - but these habitats are not as remote as the Falklands) and some details of the
skull suggest that it originally arrived with
natives visiting the islands and was kept by them as a
pet in a semi-domesticated state. If that's true, the progenitor form from mainland
South America would have become extinct during the last
Ice Age.
DNA analysis of museum specimens have proved rather inconclusive as to the exact relationship of this animal, some even suggesting
hybridization (during the
domestication process) with a relative or progenitor of the coyote; it isn't known whether this would have been biologically possible. Another possibility is that, during an
Ice Age, a
land bridge between Falkland Islands and South America enabled its ancestors to traverse the distance. At any rate, the Falkland Island Fox is a
biogeographical mystery.
Commemorations
Locations:
Other:
The Falkland fifty pence piece features the Warrah
The Warrah, a Falkland Islands' conservation magazine (External Link)
"Warrah Knitwear", a company formerly based in Fox Bay.
"Warrah Design", a company based in Fox Bay
In Media
The Warrah appears in Further Information
Get more info on 'Falkland Island Fox'.
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