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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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Different Outlook Wolves of Falkland Islands by Arefa Tehsin
Extinction. Today we stand face to face with it though not realising its gravity. It is not just the dinosaurs that are no more; many other species have gone never to return in recent history. In this series of articles, the first part of which was 'Bygone passengers of North America' published last week, I will be writing about the extinct species and the causes of their extinction from the face of the earth. Story of wolves Wolf. Villain of Red Riding Hood, personified evil of myths, magical and terrifying Werewolf of folklore, devil of the Hollywood movies. We have indeed given wolf a 'cosy' place in our psyches. Man, faithful to his true unrefined nature, cannot and being intimidated even with his own imaginary perceptions. Had it not been the extraordinary adaptive nature of the 'true' wolves - surviving in deserts, tundra, plains, grasslands, forests and so on - they would have been wiped out from this planet, that man calls his own, long back. Today seven subspecies of wolves and four 'wolf-like' canids have been intentionally exterminated and they owe this to the uncanny human race. Between 1850-1900 an estimated two million wolves were killed mercilessly. Only one percent of this number survives. Lets talk of North America. By the 19th century wolf hunting was no more a sport with discreet and controlled hunting but an indiscreet, insensible, unselective, injudicious and, if it may not appear ridiculous may I say, a scrupulously 'inhuman' activity. Poisoning was the easiest method adopted by people far and wide. An animal would be killed and stuffed with poison and left in the wild. In 1-2 days time the place would become horrendous with not just wolves but various other meat-eating animals lying dead with the poison - not forgetting the Red Indians killed. The widespread use of poison started poisoning water supplies, prairies and its grasses killing the herbivorous, cattle and even children. In 1928 thousands of acres of forest was burnt down in Arkansas to drive a handful of wolves out. Hatred towards the fellow creatures as well as its own kind is indigenous to humans alone. Of the various extinct species of wolves, lets talk about Warrah or Antarctic wolf also known as the Falklands Fox. This enigmatic creature inhabited the Falkland Islands (off the southern tip of South America) with the only other land beast being a small mouse. How it evolved on an isolated island with no other related species - this mystery could never be solved. Somewhere between a wolf and a fox, this beast was unique in its own kind and astonishingly survived on birds, bird eggs, sea mammals and perhaps even on vegetation. 1690 was the year that brought this creature to the notice of prying human eyes by Richard Simon who sailed the Welfare. In 1741 John Byron and crew of The Wager took refuge on Falkland Islands after the wreck of their ship. Four Warrahs came in the water and ran towards the men in boat. The men were terrified and took this to be an attack. Irritated and afraid the men set the 'tussock' on fire. What next, the whole country was ablaze for days and they could see the warrahs running around in distress. Byron was the first one to bring a skin of this species to Europe. Dom Pernetty in the year 1764 reported a similar attack but he gave a probable theory for this as well. He said perhaps the wolves were not attacking but were approaching due to their curiosity, as was the case with many birds that approached as if they were tamed. The virtue of lack of fear of man and considering him a friend led this innocent beast to extinction. De Bougainville (writer of Voyage Round the World) said that they quite believed the trails of warrahs to be those of humans, so intelligent were its games and plans. He described warrah as living in dunes on the seashore and so thin that one would think it was starving for most part of the year. Its call was described similar to weak barking of a dog. After heavy persecution of these animals by the settlers in the early 19th century, in 1833 Darwin voyaging in the famous Beagle happened to pass Falkland Islands and observe these beasts. In his Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle he jotted down his observations and said that as those islands were now being colonised and due to the tame habits of warrahs remaining the same in spite of their heavy killings, "before the paper is decayed on which this animal has been figured, it will be ranked among those species which have perished from the earth". They were easily killed by holding meat in one hand to tempt them and knife in another to slit their throats. Not much time had elapsed after Darwin left that island that pelt hunters were brought in by colonial government. Large scale hunting for pelt and fur commenced. Stores in U.S. started getting huge supplies of this fur. Bounty was set on them for so-called protecting the sheep and cattle of the settlers. Poison, traps and simply killing these extremely tame animals with a knife were widely practised. Once again, as an age-old custom, men restored to label these beasts with having unearthly and vampirish powers to eradicate them. They were captured, tortured and mutilated. Last of warrahs Astoundingly, the only live specimen to reach England in 1868 was through none other than LeComte, the man largely responsible for the extinction of King Penguins from Falkland Islands. He used to supply these penguins to Zoological Society. The Warrah was the only survivor, except three birds, from a huge collection of animals on the ship. All the animals died due to mishandling. This warrah survived in the London Zoo for some years. However, no conservation measures were taken. It was the year 1876 that saw the last of the warrahs. They paid the price of being friendly with the humans once and for all. The last known warrah was killed at Shallow Bay, in the Hill Cove Canyon, West Falkland. Darwin's prophetic prediction, to his dismay, came true in his own lifetime. |
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