The Falkland Island Fox (Dusicyon australis, formerly named Canis antarcticus by Darwin), also known as the Warrah and occasionally as the Falkland Island Wolf or Antarctic Wolf and by Argentine writers as the Malvinas Zorro, was the only native land mammal of the Falkland Islands. This endemic canid became extinct in 1876, the only known canid to have gone extinct in historical times. Its most closely related species in the genusDusicyon of southern-hemisphere foxes is Dusicyon griseus, the Patagonian Fox.
The fur of the Falkland Island Fox had a tawny colour. The diet is unknown. Due to the absence of native rodents it probably consisted of ground-nesting birds such as geese and penguins, grubs and insects, as well as seashore scavenging (Allen 1942).
The Falkland Island Fox was reported to have been common and tame, when Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833. 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 a speedy success of the extermination campaign.
Reference
G.M. Allen, Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere, 1942
Its current scientific name is Dusicyonaustralis, meaning foolish dog of the south, alluding to its lack of fear of man.
Dusicyonaustralisaustralis (Kerr, 1792), and Dusicyonaustralis darwinii (Thomas, 1914).
In 1914, Oldfield Thomas moved it into the genusDusicyon, with the culpeo (Dusicyon culpaeus is nowadays seen as a synonym of Pseudalopex culpaeus) and South American foxes.
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