The Falkland Islands hit the headlines at the beginning of November 2009, and for a

rather unusual reason. The DNA of the warrah, the extinct Falklands wolf, had been

sequenced and the results published in the scientific journal Current Biology. The

story clearly appealed to the UK Media and most newspapers ran it; typical was ‘How

scientists cracked puzzle of the Falklands wolf’ in The Independent for November 2nd

Stone, Phil

English

NERC Open Research Archive

 1 
DNA PROVES THE WARRAH WAS A WOLF – AND GOT TO THE 
FALKLANDS UNAIDED 
 
By Phil Stone 
 
The Falkland Islands hit the headlines at the beginning of November 2009, and for a 
rather unusual reason. The DNA of the warrah, the extinct Falklands wolf, had been 
sequenced and the results published in the scientific journal Current Biology. The 
story clearly appealed to the UK Media and most newspapers ran it; typical was ‘How 
scientists cracked puzzle of the Falklands wolf’ in The Independent for November 2nd.  
 
The warrah was first brought to the attention of the scientific world by Charles 
Darwin, who wrote after his visits in 1833 and 1834:  “As far as I am aware there is 
no other instance in any part of the world, of so small a mass of broken land, distant  
from a continent, possessing so large a quadruped peculiar to itself.” Then later, when 
assessing the insularity of his Galapagos mocking birds: “The only fact of a similar 
kind of which I am aware is the constantly asserted difference between the wolf-like 
fox of East & West Falkland Islds. If there is the slightest foundation for these 
remarks the zoology of archipelagoes will be worth examining, for such facts would 
undermine the stability of species.” Darwin also predicted the warrah’s demise, and 
sure enough the last one was shot at Shallow Bay, West Falkland in 1876. 
 
Darwin’s erstwhile shipmate on HMS Beagle, Bartholomew Sulivan, later denied that 
there was any difference between the warrahs from the East and the West. Sulivan 
lived in the islands for a while so was well placed to judge, but now it’s hard to be 
sure, because all we have is a handful of skulls and skins in various museums. And to 
cloud the issue still further, whether those specimens came from the East or the West 
is commonly not recorded (a notable exception is Darwin’s well-documented 
collection). Still, it was four of the museum specimens that had been sampled for 
DNA and for which genes had been sequenced, or rather it was five that had been 
sampled but only four that had provided sufficiently detailed genetic datasets – hence 
some numerical confusion in the Media. The results were the outcome of a scientific 
collaboration (Slater et al., 2009) between experts and laboratories in Los Angeles 
(USA), Seville (Spain), Uppsala (Sweden), and Adelaide (Australia). The warrah 
samples were provided by The Natural History Museum, London (UK) (2 samples, 
one of which was collected by Darwin – Figure 1), The World Museum, Liverpool 
(UK), The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (USA) and the Otago Museum 
(New Zealand). It was the Otago specimen that gave unsatisfactory analyses.  
 
Before the DNA study was completed it wasn’t even clear whether the warrah was a 
wolf or a fox – note Darwin’s ‘wolf-like fox’. Though the preserved skulls showed 
unusual craniodental features, their interpretation was by no means straightforward 
(Clutton-Brock et al., 1976). So the first important finding from the DNA assessment 
was that the warrah was indeed a wolf, with a closest living relative in the Maned 
Wolf of the South American savannah. Not that close though. Molecular dating 
analyses (the ‘molecular clock’) suggest that the warrah and the maned wolf last 
shared a common ancestor six million years ago, and that beast lived in North 
America. The Panama isthmus didn’t form until about 3 million years ago, so only 
sometime after that did the South American wolf lineages begin to migrate south. The 
warrah would probably have shared a closer descent with other, but now extinct South 
 2 
American wolf species, which it survived in the safety of (and lack of competition in) 
an island refuge. 
 
The other much-debated questions regarding the warrah concern how and when it got 
to the Falkland Islands, which even allowing for lower sea levels during the last ice 
age have never been linked with South America by dry land. Darwin and Robert 
Fitzroy, captain of HMS Beagle, had speculated that the first warrahs might have 
arrived on an iceberg, but the popular consensus became some form of human 
intervention, either by accident or design. It was thought possible that Indian canoes 
from Patagonia, complete with hunting dogs, might have made the trip – though 
prospects for a successful return journey seem less promising. This idea - human 
dispersal followed by isolation – has been previously reviewed for Falkland Island 
Journal: in 1972 by Stanley Gorham, and in 1993 by Patrick Armstrong; both thought 
it the most likely solution. A rather more exotic and fanciful variation on the theme 
was then offered in a 2002 book by Gavin Menzies, who proposed that in 1423 the 
Falklands had been visited by a Chinese fleet of ocean-going junks – complete with 
dogs for hunting and/or consumption, some of whom escaped and were marooned. 
 
All of this preceded the DNA breakthrough of course. The first mention of an attempt  
to sequence the warrah’s genes was in a 2003 New Scientist article by Dan Whipple. 
He discussed the uncertainty around the animal’s origin and noted that “… DNA 
studies of old museum specimens have so far failed to settle the matter.” It is not clear 
to which studies (if any) he was referring, but now the science has caught up with the 
speculation. The new results from the mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis allow an 
estimate of the time that has elapsed since the four successfully analysed warrah 
specimens last shared a common ancestor. That estimate turns out to be about 330 000 
years ago! Even allowing for the uncertainties surrounding this kind of work (at 95% 
confidence the possible range is 70 000 to 640 000 years ago), the warrah population 
was clearly established long before humans arrived in South America, no earlier than 
20 000 years ago. This makes a human-mediated origin for the warrah most unlikely. 
Instead, the animals probably reached the islands via ice, solid sea-ice or floes, at 
some point during the last ice age.   
 
With the lower sea level of the ice age it is not inconceivable that a complete, winter 
ice cover might have extended between the Falklands and the mainland. Indeed, as a 
one-off event in a particularly severe year it must be highly likely. A wolf might have 
made a good living out on the sea ice, hunting penguin and perhaps seal. From there, 
arrival and subsequent isolation on the Falklands is not difficult to envisage. During 
the last ice age there were particularly intense cold intervals at around 340 000 years 
ago, 150 000 years ago and about 25 000 years ago; one of these might have created 
the conditions exploited by the first (and perhaps only) warrahs to make it across, 
with the earlier options perhaps the most likely.  
 
We’ll probably never know if the warrahs on East and West Falkland had indeed 
begun to diverge. If the ‘last common ancestor’ date of 330 000 years ago does in fact 
date the isolation of an original population, there would have been enough time 
available for that to have happened. On the other hand, the populations could have 
readily mixed across a sea-free or frozen Falkland Sound as recently as 20 000 years 
ago and since it’s only 5 km across the Sound, either straight across in the north or 
island-hopping in the south, a determined or fortunate warrah might make it across 
 3 
anyway. Sadly, we’ll probably never have enough material to know for sure. Still, 
I’ve no doubt that Charles Darwin would be delighted by the new findings, and it’s 
probably no coincidence that the results were published in 2009, the 200th anniversary 
of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal book “Origin of 
Species”.  
 
As well as those museums listed above which provided samples for the DNA study, 
the following are also known to hold various warrah specimens: 
Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum - Naturalis, Leiden, Netherlands. 
Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden. 
Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. 
Until very recently no warrah relics were held in the Falklands. Happily that is no 
longer the case. During the 2009/2010 summer, ancient Canidae bones, including 
skulls and jaws, were found by Dale Evans on his family’s farm at Spring Point, West 
Falkland. They have now been confirmed (in July 2010) as warrah remains by Louise 
Tomsett, a mammal specialist at The Natural History Museum, London, based on 
distinctive features of the teeth. Dale, a natural history enthusiast, was thirteen when 
he found the bones but has been collecting specimens since he was three! 
 
Acknowledgements 
 
This article is published by permission of the Executive Director, British Geological 
Survey (NERC). Figure 1 is used by permission of The Natural History Museum, 
London. Patrick Armstrong is thanked for helpful comments on an early version of 
the text. 
 
 
Bibliography 
 
Armstrong, P. 1993. The behaviour and origin of the warrah. Falkland Islands 
Journal, Vol. 6(2), 99-106. 
 
Clutton-Brock, J., Corbet, G. B. & Hills, M. 1976. A review of the family Canidae, 
with a classification by numerical methods. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural 
History) Zoology, Vol. 29(3), 119-199. 
 
Gorham, S.W. 1972. History of the so-called Falkland Islands “Wolf” Dusicyon 
australis (Kerr) 1792, (formerly D. antarcticus Bechstein 1799). Falkland Islands 
Journal. 27-39. 
 
Menzies, G. 2002. 1421: The year China discovered the world. London, Bantam 
Press. 
 
Slater, G. J., Thalmann, O. and 8 others. 2009. Evolutionary history of the Falklands 
wolf. Current Biology, Vol. 19(20), R937-R938. 
 
Whipple, D. 2003. Alas, poor warrah … New Scientist, 20/27 December 2003 / 3 
January 2004. 80-81. 
 
 
 4 
British Geological Survey, 
Murchison House,  
West Mains Road, 
Edinburgh EH9 3LA. 
 
 
 
Caption for the accompanying illustration, Figure 1: 
 
Left lateral view of the skull of an adult, male warrah collected in East Falkland, 
1833, by Charles Darwin during the Beagle expedition. Scale in millimetres and 
centimetres. © The Natural History Museum, London. This was one of the specimens 
used in the DNA study. 
 
 
 
 
The original final sentence … 
It is a shame that no warrah relics are currently held in the Falklands – though 
hopefully it is only a matter of time until more are discovered. 
 
 
To be replaced by … 
Until very recently no warrah relics were held in the Falklands. Happily that is no 
longer the case. During the 2009/2010 summer, ancient Canidae bones, including 
skulls and jaws, were found by Dale Evans on his family’s farm at Spring Point, West 
Falkland. They have now been confirmed (in July 2010) as warrah remains by Louise 
Tomsett, a mammal specialist at The Natural History Museum, London, based on 
distinctive features of the teeth. Dale, a natural history enthusiast, was thirteen when 
he found the bones but has been collecting specimens since he was three! 
 
 
Alternatively, could leave things as they are and add at the very end … 
 
STOP PRESS 
Though until very recently no warrah relics were held in the Falklands, that is happily 
no longer the case. During the 2009/2010 summer, ancient Canidae bones, including 
skulls and jaws, were found by Dale Evans on his family’s farm at Spring Point, West 
Falkland. They have now been confirmed (in July 2010) as warrah remains by Louise 
Tomsett, a mammal specialist at The Natural History Museum, London, based on 
distinctive features of the teeth. Dale, a natural history enthusiast, was thirteen when 
he found the bones but has been collecting specimens since he was three! 
 



1421: The year China discovered the world. London,

A review of the family Canidae, with a classification by numerical methods.

Evolutionary history of the Falklands wolf.

History of the so-called Falkland Islands “Wolf” Dusicyon australis (Kerr) 1792, (formerly D. antarcticus Bechstein 1799). Falkland Islands Journal.

The behaviour and origin of the warrah.

DNA proves the Warrah was a wolf : and got to the Falklands unaided

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/11471/1/WarrahDNA-3-FIJ.pdf

DNA proves the Warrah was a wolf : and got to the Falklands unaided

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