"Could this be a dog that someone brought and got lost in Antarctica?" Xiang Yang looked confused. In a place like Antarctica, it was impossible for creatures like wolves to appear.
There are indeed wolves in the world that can survive in extremely cold environments.
Animals like our country's snow wolf and Western Siberia's blue wolf can advance in the face of blizzards.
Even dogs, which are close relatives of wolves, have breeds like the Huskies that are not afraid of the severe cold.
However, the number of snow wolves is limited, and they only live in northern my country. They are endangered species. Currently, the entire population consists of only more than 7,000 individuals, and it is absolutely impossible for them to appear in Antarctica.
It is also impossible for blue wolves to appear in Antarctica.
"No, it's just a wolf." Gao Chuang shook his head.
Although the corpse had been dead for a long time, it was preserved intact because of the extremely low temperature outside. The creature was nearly one meter long and its tail was nearly thirty centimeters long. Although it looked very similar to a pastoral dog, its open eyes were slanted and its mouth was wider than that of an ordinary dog. Most importantly, its snout was pointed, which was the best proof that it was a ferocious beast.
"No matter whether it is a wolf or a dog, dig this creature out first. Be careful not to destroy it." Xiang Yang suggested.
Gao Chuang nodded and gave his men an order: "Bring the cutting machine over here and cut carefully."
The foreigner hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say that he had discovered the creature.
But Gao Chuang pretended not to see the expression on the foreigner's face. Besides, the number of people with Gao Chuang at the scene was more than ten times that of the foreigner, and Gao Chuang was the first to get to the ice floe. Even if Gao Chuang wanted to drive the foreigners away, the foreigners would have no choice but to accept it.
Soon, the mysterious creature was chiseled out of the ice.
After seeing the full appearance of this creature, Xiang Yang had a vague guess as to what kind of creature it was.
The creature's tail was hanging vertically at the tip of its hind legs, its mouth was open, and inside was a mouthful of sharp fangs. As for its hair, it was a very rare red color. It was a red-haired monster.
"This should be the Antarctic snow wolf." Xiang Yang guessed.
The Antarctic snow wolf, also known as the Antarctic wolf and the Falkland Islands wolf, is the only terrestrial mammal in the Falkland Islands. It became completely extinct two hundred years ago. Before its extinction, they roamed the Falkland Islands and were frequently spotted on the Antarctic continent.
And the color of its fur also proves that this mysterious creature is a Falkland Islands wolf.
The Falkland Islands wolf's fur changes with the temperature. In summer, its fur is generally light yellow or red, and in winter, it turns white.
"Antarctic snow wolf? What is that?" Gao Chuang asked.
Xiang Yang thought for a moment, then said, "In the 18th century, there lived a species of wolf on the Falkland Islands, near the Antarctic Circle, at the southern tip of South America. This species of wolf was the southernmost wolf in the world. Apart from the Falkland Islands wolf, I really can't think of any other wolf that would appear in Antarctica."
Gao Chuang frowned. "That's unscientific. I've been to the Falkland Islands. They are isolated islands. I know about wolves. As predators, the Falkland Islands wolf cannot survive independently of other related creatures on the isolated Falkland Islands."
Xiang Yang shrugged, "So they are extinct."
In fact, scientists are still exploring the secret of why the Falkland Islands wolf can survive and reproduce on the Falkland Islands.
The Falkland Islands are a group of deserted islands deep in the ocean.
According to geologists, the Falkland Islands have never been connected to any continent from ancient times to the present day.
There are no other mammals on the island.
There is a theory that the ancestors of the Falkland Islands wolf were actually Antarctic wolves, which arrived on the Falkland Islands via ice floes during the Ice Age.
Another theory is that the Falkland Islands were densely forested before the Ice Age. After the glacier passed, all the flora and fauna on the island became extinct, and the Falkland wolf was the only survivor on the island.
However, neither theory has found critical evidence.
To date, no traces of the Falkland wolf's reproduction have been found in Antarctica.
During the Ice Age, it would have been impossible for a canine predator to survive alone on a desert island.
Now, locals are more convinced that these Falkland wolves are actually foxes from South America.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, domesticated South American mountain foxes were used as hunting dogs by local primitive people and brought to the Falkland Islands. Then due to an accident, the primitive people died, but the mountain foxes survived. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, these South American mountain foxes eventually evolved into the appearance of Falkland Islands wolves.
However, this statement is only widely accepted by local people, and scientists outside the country scoff at it.
Because biologists conducted DNA analysis on specimens of the Falkland Islands wolf in the museum and concluded that the earliest common ancestor of the Falkland Islands wolf and the South American mountain fox was 330,000 years ago.
Humans first arrived in the Falkland Islands seven thousand years ago, which means there are at least tens of thousands of generations between them.
"Extinct?" Gao Chuang was stunned, then said with regret: "It would be great if they were not extinct. I don't know if this kind of wolf is easy to domesticate. In a place like Antarctica, if we can domesticate a group of dogs that can survive there, it will be a great help to us humans."
Xiang Yang smiled and said, "Maybe it can be tamed, but unfortunately, there is no chance to tame it now."
Fang Youqun wondered, "Brother Yang, you haven't seen a living Falkland Island wolf, so how do you know they can be domesticated?"
"That's because the earliest Falkland Islands wolf was called Falkland Islands dog." Xiang Yang said with a smile.
As early as 1833, when the world-renowned biologist Darwin landed on the Falkland Islands for scientific research, he gave the first official name to the Falkland Islands wolf, Antarctic Dog, and classified it in the same category as domestic dogs because Darwin found that the Falkland Islands wolf was a very docile carnivore.
It was only in later studies that scientists generally felt that the Falkland Islands wolf was closer to a fox than a wolf.
However, its specific classification is still controversial. Ordinary people are still accustomed to calling them Falkland Islands wolves, while scientists continue to use the name left by Darwin and define it as Antarctic stupid dogs because they have no fear of humans. As the only carnivore on the Falkland Islands, they have no natural enemies, so they don’t know what fear is. This arrogant character is one of the reasons for their extinction.
Of course, the main reason for their extinction is still humans.