A Friendly “Wolf-Like Fox” Was The Falkland Islands’ Only Mammal Until Something Terrible Arrived In The 17th Century

The Falkland Islands, now famous for its sheep, was once home to just one native mammal: the Falkland Islands "wolf". I crack out “these guys” because we’ve since learned that these strange, tame creatures weren’t wolves at all, but the final stronghold of a curious species of domesticated fox that started out in South America. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

These strangely fearless and friendly foxes survived in the Falklands for 250 years longer than the original population back in South America. That is, until something terrible came along (spoiler alert: it was us).

At first, we thought the Falkland Islands fox was a wolf. Then, when we realized it was, in fact, a fox, it was thought to be a unique species that di