When the first Europeans colonized the Falkland Islands, they found a local canine, which they thought was a wolf. These animals were hunted to extinction-the last one was killed around 1880. Since the islands are very far from the main land, scientists believe that the wolves migrated across on a land bridge which existed at the height of the last Ice Age (about 11,000 years ago). My question:no such animal exists in Patagonia today-is it possible that this animal actually evolved on the islands? I have been searching, and don’t see any reference to such an animal in South America.
there’s a fairly good overview here…
Well, evolved from what? It’s not like you’d go all the way from protoplasmal primordial atomic globule to something wolf-like all on that island. At some point some ancestor had to have made it over from the mainland, and that ancestor would probably have been relatively wolf-like.
My question really has two parts:
-what happened to the mainland (Falklands) wolves?
-a wolf is a large predator-what did it subsist on, on those barren islands? Aside from birds, no large land mammals lived there, until humans brought sheep, goats and cattle (in the 1700s)?
I can find no reference to a a mainland species-anybody know more?
it could be fun to clone the animal-wonder if enough DNA exists to do this?
The term “wolf” was often used for any canid-like animal that explorers found, so don’t get too hung up on it. This guys is not a true wolf-- not even a member of the Genus Canis. Similarly, the “maned wolf” of South America is not a true wolf.
There are sea lions and elephant seals, the young would have made a sizable meal. And among the birds are penguins, decent sized prey which would have provided a bonanza of eggs and young in the spring.
You are aware of Wikipedia right? Falkland Islands wolf - Wikipedia
The Maned wolf (Maned wolf - Wikipedia) stands about 30" tall and 30" long (then add a tail). The diet is small rodents, birds and vegetable material.
The Falkland Island wolf was likely smaller and likely had a diet focused on sea birds.