Here’s a wildlife mystery that has yet to be solved: Where does the warrah belong?
The warrah’s exact taxonomy is not well understood. Is it a feral dog? Is it a domesticated form of coyote that went feral on the islands? Is it a species South American “wolf-fox” (Lycalopex)?
A few months ago I wrote a piece on the Falkland Islands wolf or warrah. And these questions still remain unanswered. This species went extinct because it was very curious about people, and Europeans, with their biases about all things lupine or quasi-lupine, shot, trapped, and poisoned them with abandon. Their pelts were sold for a decent price, and shepherds wanted them killed to protect their flocks. That level of exploitation could not be sustained, and warrah now exists as taxidermied specimens.
If anyone has any up-to-date information on the warrah’s taxonomy, I would appreciate it, but the latest DNA testing showed that it belonged to the genus Canis and was a very close relative of the coyote.
Now, that’s a weird finding, considering that there are no other members of the genus Canis in the whole of South America, except for domestic dogs.
The Dire wolf (Canis dirus) historically ranged into South America, so it is possible that the warrah was a relative of that species. However, there were other species of Canis that once ranged into South America, some of them were probably quite similar to the warrah.
The warrah could have possibly been a living fossil, the last remaining indigenous Canis species in South America.
Sadly, it holds the dubious distinction of being the only dog species to go extinct in modern times, although two species, the Ethiopian wolf and the African wild dog/Cape hunting dog/painted wolf/painted dog, are very close to joining the warrah.
