Remember my post on the enigma of the warrah or Falkland Islands wolf?
I stated that we didn’t have the foggiest clue what its ancestry was, although early studies of its DNA suggested that it was derived from something like a coyote.
It has been speculated that the culpeo and the other zorros or wolf-like foxes of South America are its closest relatives.
Well, a new study was released yesterday that suggests that the warrah’s closest relative was the maned wolf. The lineage of the two species split 6 million years ago, when the ancestors of both species lived in North America.
Yes, South America might have a great diversity of wild dog species today, but all of its wild dogs descend from North American ancestors. Canids moved to South America 2.5 million years ago.
So the enigma of the warrah has been solved. This evidence fits nicely with the etymology of the name warrah, which is believed to have been derived from the Guaraní word for the maned wolf– “”aguará guazú.” That tells us that the warrah probably looked more like the maned wolf than the various taxidermied specimens suggest. (However, a better photo this specimen is definitely suggestive of something like a maned wolf.)
However, no one has found any North American canids that could be considered the ancestors of the warrah or maned wolf.
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I need to say here that the maned wolf is one of the more bizarre wild dogs. In fact, I can’t think of a stranger animal for the warrah to count as its closest relative. Remember, the warrah looked like a dingo, a culpeo, or a coyote. Its appearance wasn’t that strange. It was the fact that it was located on isolated island that made people wonder about it. If it had been found on the mainland, it would have been instantly grouped with the South American zorros.
They stand over three feet at the shoulder but weigh only about 44-55 pounds. Their long legs are an adaptation to living in their grassland habitat, where the grass often grows too tall for a shorter-legged dog to see its prey.
Maned wolf
Unlike other large wild dogs, the maned wolf does not form packs. A monogamous pair shares a territory, but they normally are not seen together in that territory. They apparently come together only to mate.
Also unusual for a wild dog of this size, over 50% of its diet is vegetable matter. One particular species of fruit, the “wolf apple (Solanum lycocarpum) is named because maned wolves like to eat it. In captivity, these animals have been fed like normal canids and then have developed bladder stones. Their bodies simply cannot metabolize such high protein diets.
Even more strangely, their urine smells like marijuana. Their urine contains a pyrazine, which also occurs in marijuana. It is possible that their urine gets this distinctive odor from the pyrazine.
The warrah’s only living relative is much stranger than it was!
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Speaking of South American wolves.
