Falkland Islands wolf

A Falkland fox

The Falklands fox ( Dusicyon australis) is an extinct wild dog, which was located exclusively in the Falkland Islands. Excessive hunting of the last Falkland fox was shot in 1876; then the species has not been seen.

Story of the fox

Occasionally the Falkland fox is also known as the " Falklands wolf " is known, but this is exaggerated at his height: He had a body length of 90 centimeters, 30 centimeters were added tail. His fur was yellow-brown, with black tips, some fur games appeared darker than others.

In the Falkland Islands, the animal was standing at the end of the food chain (so-called Spitzenprädator ). It was the only native land mammal before the arrival of man. His food was probably ground-breeding birds and penguins, may also be herbal diet as Charles Darwin, 1833, the sparsely populated Falkland Islands was heading, he experienced the Falkland fox as common and tame animal. He reported that the foxes came to the tents to seek food and eat out of your hand. With the mass introduction of sheep farming, the fox was seen as a threat and fair game. As of 1839, the British administration paid a premium for each shot Falkland fox. Whether the animal was actually a threat to the sheep, can no longer understand, but may be doubted. Since there are no forests in the Falkland Islands and the Falkland foxes were so tame, the eradication proved to be easy. 43 years after Darwin's visit to the only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands was eradicated.

The differences between the Falkland foxes on the east and on the west island gave Darwin the first evidence that species can develop in different ways.

With Dusicyon avus a similar kind of dog was in pre-Columbian times also common in Tierra del Fuego and the South American mainland. Dusicyon avus died about 3000 years ago in Tierra del Fuego and about 1600 years ago on the mainland. This way reached a body weight of about 10-15 kg.

Origin

The origin of the fox has long been a mystery. A former land bridge between the mainland and the islands has not passed and native land mammals did not exist and other islands in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands have no related animals. A speculation, the fox had been brought as a sort of pet of native South Americans to the island appeared unlikely, never found a relative in Latin America. DNA analysis brought the realization that the next of kin over 300,000 years old. Even a settlement over a bridge of ice seemed unusual because the fox would have the last ice age probably barely survived on the islands. The nearest living relatives of the today Falkland fox is the maned wolf ( Chrysocyon brachyurus ) from which Dusicyon separated before about 7 million years ago. An even closer, but extinct relatives is Dusicyon avus, who lived on the South American mainland and the Falkland fox separated only 16,000 years ago at the peak of the last ice age and the Falkland Islands populated. About submarine terraces, which were during the Ice Age to the islands and were separated only by narrow and often frozen waterways, the Fox could run over and go feed on seals and penguins.

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The animal is named after the settlement of Fox Bay on West Falkland Islands.