Fuegian dog: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Extinct domesticated canid}}

[[File:Fuegian dog (1839)Fuegiens-f3972.jpg|thumb|right|OneTwo artist'sFuegian interpretationdogs: ofKatekita a(female) Fuegianand dogTapan (male)]]

The '''Fuegian dog''', or '''Yahgan dog''', or '''Patagonian dog''' ({{lang-langx|es|perro fueguino, perro yagán, perro patagónico}}), is an extinct type of [[Canidae|canid]]. InIts comparisonancestry tois thea [[Canismatter familiaris|domesticof dog]]’sscientific ancientdebate,{{sfn|Jaksic|Castro|2023}}{{sfn|Jaksic|Zurita|Briceño|Jiménez|2024|p=9}} [[Canisthough lupus|wolf]]traditionally ancestry,it thewas Fuegianthought dog wasto be bred and [[Domestication|domesticated]] from the South American '''[[culpeo]]''', also known as the culpeo fox (''Lycalopex culpaeus'').<ref name="Petrigh & Fugassa 2013">{{cite journal sfn|first1=Romina S. |last1=Petrigh |first2=Martin H. |last2=Fugassa |title=Molecular of a Fuegian dog belonging to the Fagnano Regional Museum ethnographic collection, Tierra del Fuego |work=[[Quaternary International]] |volume=317 |date=December 13, 2013 |pagesp=14–18 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.030 |url= http://fulltext.study/preview/pdf/1041543.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161220121042/http://fulltext.study/preview/pdf/1041543.pdf |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |access-date=September 2, 202014}}</ref> The culpeo itself is similar (in form and stature) to true foxes (tribe [[Vulpini]]), though it is closer, genetically, to [[Wolf|wolves]], [[Canis latrans|coyotes]] and [[jackal]]s (true canids, [[Canini (tribe)|tribe Canini]]); thus it is placed in a separate genus within the [[South American fox]]es or ''zorros''.

There are very few remaining [[Zoological specimen|museum specimens]] or examples of the Fuegian dog; one is at the Museo Salesiano Maggiorino Borgatello in [[Chile]],<ref name="Jaksic2023">{{cite journalsfn|last1=Jaksic|first1=Fabian M.|last2=Castro|first2=Sergio A|date=2023|title=The identity of Fuegian and Patagonian "dogs" among indigenous peoples in southernmost South America|journal=Revista Chilena de Historia Natural|volume=96|article-number=5|doi=10.1186/s40693-023-00119-z|url=https://revchilhistnat.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40693-023-00119-z|doi-access=free}}</ref> and another is at the Fagnano Regional Museum in [[Tierra del Fuego]], [[Argentina]].<ref name="{{sfn|Petrigh & |Fugassa |2013" />|pp=14–15}}

However, a 2023 study indicates that the Fuegian dog was a now extinct domestic dog which had arrived with humans into South America, and the Patagonian dog was a domesticated culpeo fox.<ref name="Jaksic2023"/>

==Taxonomy==

There are very few remaining [[Zoological specimen|museum specimens]] or examples of the Fuegian dog; one is at the Museo Salesiano Maggiorino Borgatello in [[Chile]],<ref name="Jaksic2023">{{cite journal|last1=Jaksic|first1=Fabian M.|last2=Castro|first2=Sergio A|date=2023|title=The identity of Fuegian and Patagonian "dogs" among indigenous peoples in southernmost South America|journal=Revista Chilena de Historia Natural|volume=96|article-number=5|doi=10.1186/s40693-023-00119-z|url=https://revchilhistnat.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40693-023-00119-z|doi-access=free}}</ref> and another is at the Fagnano Regional Museum in [[Tierra del Fuego]], [[Argentina]].<ref name="Petrigh & Fugassa 2013" />

Romina Petrigh and Martín Fugassa conducted a genetic investigation in 2013 using hair samples from taxidermized specimens of Fuegian dogs, belonging to a collection of the Fagnano Regional Museum, in Rio Grande. The DNA from the hair samples was compared with that of various canids that inhabit Patagonia, such as the culpeo (''Lycalopex culpaeus''), the [[South American gray fox]] (''Lycalopex griseus'') and the [[Pampas fox]] (''Lycalopex gymnocercus''), and with that of domestic dogs (''Canis lupus familiaris''). This analysis showed a greater similarity between the Fuegian dog and the culpeo (97.57%), than with the domestic dog (88.93%). These results were supported by molecular phylogenetic analysis, suggesting an atypical domestication of culpeos by hunter-gatherers inhabiting Patagonia.{{sfn|Petrigh|Fugassa|2013|p=16}} This evidence is used by William L. Franklin to argue, in part, that the Fuegian dog "was not truly domesticated in the classical, domestic dog sense, but only partially as an intermediate between domestic and wild—strongly favouring the latter."{{sfn|Franklin|2022}}

The culpeo itself is similar (in form and stature) to true foxes (tribe [[Vulpini]]), though it is closer, genetically, to wolves, [[Canis latrans|coyotes]] and [[jackal]]s (true canids, tribe [[Canini (tribe)|Canini]]); thus it is placed in a separate genus within the [[South American fox]]es or ''zorros''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lindblad-Toh |first1=K. |last2=Wade |first2=C. M. |last3=Mikkelsen |first3=T. S. |last4=Karlsson |first4=E. K. |last5=Jaffe |first5=D. B. |last6=Kamal |first6=M. |last7=Clamp |first7=M. |last8=Chang |first8=J. L. |last9=Kulbokas 3rd |first9=E. J. |year=2005 |title=Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/pdf/nature04338.pdf |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=438 |issue=7069 |pages=803–819 |bibcode=2005Natur.438..803L |doi=10.1038/nature04338 |pmid=16341006 |s2cid=4338513 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In a review of historical accounts and the current scientific literature, by Fabián Jaksic and Sergio Castro in 2023, they argued that the Fuegian dog was in fact two different animals, which they labelled as the Fuegian dog and the Patagonian dog. In their analysis, the ''Patagonian dog'', used by the [[Selkʼnam]], [[Aonikenk]], and [[Manekʼenk]] peoples, was a domesticated breed descended from the culpeo, whereas the ''Fuegian dog'', used by the [[Chono people|Chonos]], [[Kawesqar]], and [[Yahgan people|Yahgan]] peoples, was descended from an ancestral domestic dog population brought across the [[Bering Strait]].{{sfn|Jaksic|Castro|2023|p=}}

Others have posited the possibility of the Fuegian dog being a domesticated ''[[Dusicyon avus]]'',{{sfn|Jaksic|Zurita|Briceño|Jiménez|2024|p=9}} or a potential hybrid of domestic dogs with either the culpeo or ''Dusicyon avus''.{{sfn|Jaksic|Zurita|Briceño|Jiménez|2024|p=9}}

==Characteristics==

[[File:Fuegian dog (18631839).jpg|thumb|Anotherright|One artist's interpretation of a Fuegian dog]]

Fuegian dogs had erect ears, sharp snout, longer straight fur, and a thick tail and were tawny-colored or entirely white.<ref name="Spears"/>{{sfn|Alonso Marchante|2019|p=75}} Surviving images show them to be a similar size to the wild culpeo, which weighs {{convert|5|to|13.5|kg|lb|abbr=on}}, or roughly the size of a [[Shetland Sheepdog]]. [[Samuel Kirkland Lothrop]] reported that their height ranged from 11 to 20 inches,{{sfn|Lothrop|1928|p=33}} while [[Ricardo E. Latcham]] reported them as being over {{convert|60|to|23.6|cm|in|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Alonso Marchante|2019|p=75}} [[Gaucho]]s called these foxes "maned dogs" because of their resemblance to the [[maned wolf]]. [[Lucas Bridges]] described the animals as like "a stunted cross between an [[German Shepherd dog|Alsatian police dog]] and a wolf".<ref>{{cite book |last=Bridges, |first=Lucas (2008),|author-link=Lucas pp.Bridges 97</ref>{{Full citation needed|reasondate=source2008 |title=[[The Uttermost Part of the Earth]] missing|orig-date=March1948 2018|page=97}}</ref>

It was described by French navigator {{ill|Louis-Ferdinand Martial|fr|Louis-Ferdinand Martial|es|Louis-Ferdinand Martial}}, who headed the 1883 scientific expedition to Cape Horn, as “ugly"ugly, with long tawny hair and a sharp snout, it looks quite like a fox".<ref name="Martial 2005">{{Cite book |last=Martial |first=Louis-Ferdinand |author-link=:fr:Louis-Ferdinand Martial |orig-year=1884–1889 |date=2005 |title=Mision al Cabo de Hornos, la expedición científica francesa en la Romanche Julio de 1882 a setiembre de 1883 |trans-title=Mission to Cape Horn, the French scientific expedition in Romanche July 1882 to September 1883 |language=es |title-link=w:es:Expedición científica francesa al Cabo de Hornos (1882-1883) |___location=Ushuaia, Argentina |publisher=Zaguier & Urruty Pubs. |page=225}}</ref>

In line with Jaksic and Castro's delineation into two separate animals, observations of Europeans described a smaller lighter colored dog that were employed in hunting [[tuco-tuco]]s, and a larger darker colored dog that was employed in hunting [[guanaco]]s.{{sfn|Alonso Marchante|2019|p=75}}

==Behaviour==

Although the distribution of the Fuegian dog corresponded with that of the [[Yahgan people]], individual animals weremay not loyalhave tobeen protective of their human owners. [[Julius Popper]], pointedone outof the canid'sprimary lackperpetrators of loyalty[[Selknam genocide|the genocide]] against the local indigenous population, wrote that: "I never saw them, no matter how large their number, take an aggressive attitude or defend their masters when these were in danger".<ref name="Popper1887">{{cite journal |last=Popper |first=Julio [Julius] |author-link=Julius Popper |title=Exploración de la Tierra del Fuego |worklanguage=es |trans-title=Exploration of Tierra del Fuego |journal=Expedición Popper: Conferencia dada en en Instituto Geográfico Argentino el 5 de Marzo de 1887 |date=1887 |___location=Ecuador |publisher=Instituto Geográfico Militar |via=Biblioteca Virtual, Museo del Fin del Mundo}} Text also available in this collected-writings book:<br />{{cite book |last=Popper |first=Julio [Julius] |author-link=Julius Popper |title=Atlanta – Proyecto para la creación de un pueblo marítimo en Tierra del Fuego y otros escritos |trans-title=Atlanta – Project for the creation of a maritime town in Tierra del Fuego and other writings |language=es |url= http://mhdlibros.com/?p=444 |publisher=Editorial Eudeba |___location=Buenos Aires}}{{Dead link|access-date=OctoberSeptember 2023}}</ref>3, {{Unreliable2020 source?|archive-date=OctoberMarch 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328004635/http://mhdlibros.com/?p=444 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Uses==

[[File:Selknam cazando.jpg|thumb|Selkʼnam hunting together with Fuegian dogs.]]

Fuegian dogs were not used to hunt [[guanaco]]. However, they might have been useful for hunting [[otter]]s.<ref name="Martial 2005" /> The foxes were also useful to humans in that they would gather around their owners to keep them warm. This was noted by Julius Popper: "The dogs placed themselves in a group around the small [[Selk'nam|Onas]], taking the shape of a kind of wrapping&nbsp;.... [M]y opinion is that the Fuegian dogs are only useful to complete the defective garment of the Indian, or better, as the Ona's heating furniture".{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2023}}

While [[Julius Popper]] did not observe the dogs being of use in hunts,<ref name="Popper1887"/> Antonio Coiazzi did record their use in hunting and this has been supported by later research.<ref name="Coiazzi">{{cite book |last=Coiazzi |first=Antonio |orig-date=1914 |title=Los indios del Archipiélago Fueguino |language=es |trans-title=The Indians of the Fuegian Archipelago |___location=Punta Arenas |publisher=Atelí |date=1997}}</ref>{{sfn|Alonso Marchante|2019|p=75}} Darwin commented in his 1839 work ''[[The Voyage of the Beagle]]'' that he had been told by a native child that they caught [[otter]]s for them.<ref>{{cite book |last=Darwin |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Darwin |date=1909 |title=[[The Voyage of the Beagle]] |chapter=Tierra del Fuego |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_MDILAAAAIAAJ |page=219}}</ref> This was later supported by Martial's reporting.<ref name="Martial 2005"/>

FuegianAll sources agree that the dogs werealso notprovided useda tosource huntof [[guanaco]].warmth However,in shelters as they mightwould havearrange beenthemselves usefulto forsleep huntingtightly [[otter]]sagainst and around the Selkʼnam.<ref name="Martial 2005Popper1887"/><ref name="Coiazzi"/><ref name="Spears">{{cite book |last=Spears |first=John |author-link=John Randolph Spears |title=The foxesGold wereDiggings alsoof usefulCape toHorn: humansA study of Life in thatTierra theydel wouldFuego gatherand aroundPatagonia their|___location=New ownersYork to|date=1895 keep|isbn=9-7805-4834-724-9 them|page=73}}</ref>{{sfn|Lothrop|1928|pp=59–60}} warm. This was noted by Julius Popper stating: "The dogs placed themselves in a group around the small [[Selk'namSelkʼnam|Onas]], taking the shape of a kind of wrapping&nbsp;.... [M]y opinion is that the Fuegian dogs are only useful to complete the defective garment of the Indian, or better, as the Ona's heating furniture".{{Unreliable<ref source?|datename=October 2023}}"Popper1887"/>

==Extermination==

[[File:Fuegian dog (1863).jpg|thumb|Colorized artist's interpretation of a Fuegian dog]]

In 1919, when Silesian missionary [[Martin Gusinde]] visited the local Yahgans, he noticed that, to his knowledge, all of the dogs seemed to be missing. He immediately noted this as odd, especially considering that the tie between the dogs and the local people was well documented by foreign missionaries and explorers by this time. Indeed, this mutual cooperation allowed for the region to become the only stronghold of this unusual domesticated canine to have ever existed. Upon speaking to the local people and inquiring about what had happened to the animals, he was told that the entire known population of them had been exterminated, and it was claimed they "were dangerous to men and cattle".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gusinde |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gusinde |title=Expedición a la Tierra del Fuego |language=es |trans-title=Expedition to Tierra del Fuego |journal=Publicaciones del Museo de Etnología y Antropología de Chile |volume=II |number=1 |___location=Santiago de Chile |publisher=Imprenta Cervantes |date=1920 |page=157}}</ref> Apparently, this "fierce" nature of the animal was allegedly witnessed by [[Thomas Bridges (Anglican missionary)|Thomas Bridges]] in the 1880s, who in his writings, purported that the dogs attacked his mission's goats, while giving few specific details.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orquera |first1=L. |last2=Piana |first2=E. |date=1999 |title=La vida material y social de los Yámana |trans-title=The material and social life of the Yámana |language=es |___location=Buenos Aires |publisher=Editorial Eudeba |pages=178–180}}</ref>{{sfn|Franklin|2022}}

As part of the campaign of the [[Selknam genocide]], the dogs were hunted by European ranchers and headhunters due to its use in hunting and home making among the Selkʼnam.<ref name="Gigoux">{{cite journal |last=Gigoux |first=Carlos |date=2022 |title="Condemned to Disappear": Indigenous Genocide in Tierra del Fuego |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=24 |number=1 |pages=1–22 [13] |doi=10.1080/14623528.2020.1853359 |url=http://repository.essex.ac.uk/29322/8/CG%20Article.pdf}}</ref> This was the main cause of their extinction.<ref name="Gigoux"/>

==See also==

* [[Category:Domesticated canidssilver fox]]

* [[Falkland Islands wolf]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

===Works cited===

[[Category:South American foxes]]

{{refbegin}}

[[Category:Extinct canids]]

* {{cite book |last=Alonso Marchante |first=José Luis |date=2019 |chapter=Cazadores del viento |trans-chapter=Hunters of the Wind |language=es |title=Selkʼnam: Genocidio y resistencia |trans-title=Selkʼnam: Genocide and Resistance |___location=Santiago de Chile; Catalonia |isbn=978-956-324-749-7}}

<!--[[Category:Dog types]]

* {{cite journal |last=Franklin |first=William L. |date=2022 |title=Guanaco colonisation of Tierra del Fuego Island from mainland Patagonia: walked, swam, or by canoe? |journal=Geo: Geography and Environment |volume=9 |issue=2 |publisher=[[Royal Geographical Society]] |page=e00110 |doi=10.1002/geo2.110}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Jaksic |first1=Fabián M. |last2=Castro |first2=Sergio A. |date=2023 |title=The identity of Fuegian and Patagonian "dogs" among indigenous peoples in southernmost South America |journal=[[Revista Chilena de Historia Natural]] |volume=96 |issue=1 |article-number=5 |doi=10.1186/s40693-023-00119-z |doi-access=free |bibcode=2023RvCHN..96....5J}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Jaksic |first1=Fabián M. |last2=Zurita |first2=Carlos |last3=Briceño |first3=Cristóbal |last4=Jiménez |first4=Jaime E. |date=2024 |title=The rare Fuegian fox (Lycalopex culpaeus) from the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago: history of discovery, geographic distribution, and socio-ecological aspects |journal=[[Revista Chilena de Historia Natural]] |volume=97 |number=1 |doi=10.1186/s40693-024-00124-w |doi-access=free}}

* {{cite book |last=Lothrop |first=Samuel Kirkland |author-link=Samuel Kirkland Lothrop |date=1928 |title=The Indians of Tierra del Feugo |publisher=[[National Museum of the American Indian|Museum of the American Indian]], Heye Foundation |series=Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian |volume=X}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Petrigh |first1=Romina S. |last2=Fugassa |first2=Martín H. |date=December 13, 2013 |title=Molecular identification of a Fuegian dog belonging to the Fagnano Regional Museum ethnographic collection, Tierra del Fuego |journal=[[Quaternary International]] |volume=317 |pages=14–18 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.030 |url=http://fulltext.study/preview/pdf/1041543.pdf |url-status=dead |bibcode=2013QuInt.317...14P |hdl=11336/25319 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220121042/http://fulltext.study/preview/pdf/1041543.pdf |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |access-date=September 2, 2020}}

{{refend}}

==Further reading==

* {{cite journal |last1=Mayorga |first1=Marcelo |last2=Barrios |first2=Natasha |last3=González‑Lagos |first3=César |last4=Castro |first4=Sergio A. |last5=Jaksic |first5=Fabián M. |date=2024 |title=The iconographic evolution of Patagonian and Fuegian canids |journal=[[Revista Chilena de Historia Natural]] |volume=97 |number=6 |doi=10.1186/s40693-024-00129-5 |doi-access=free}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Silva Rochefort |first1=B. |last2=Root‐Bernstein |first2=M. |date=2021 |title=History of canids in Chile and impacts on prey adaptations |journal=[[Ecology and Evolution]] |volume=11 |number=15 |pages=9892–9903}}

[[Category:Dog breeds originating from Indigenous Americans]]

[[Category:Dog breeds originating in Argentina]]

[[Category:Dog breeds originating in Chile]]

[[Category:Extinct dog breeds]] Disputed if it can count as a dog, but maybe helpful for navigation?-->

[[Category:MammalsDomesticated of Patagoniafoxes]]

[[Category:Extinct canids]]

[[Category:Extinct dog breeds]]

[[Category:Fauna of Tierra del Fuego]]

[[Category:Genocide of indigenous peoples of South America]]

[[Category:Mammal extinctions since 1500]]

[[Category:Mammals of Argentina]]

[[Category:Mammals of Chile]]

[[Category:FaunaMammals of Tierra del FuegoPatagonia]]

[[Category:South American foxes]]

[[Category:Species made extinct by deliberate extirpation efforts]]

[[Category:Mammal extinctions since 1500]]

[[Category:Domesticated canids]]