This news item is interesting but some things need to be pointed out. Regarding the diet of any D. avus if kept by humans would be scraps of food left over by humans although waste from a hunted animal carcass, etc. would also be included. In The Red Paper 2022 Vol. 1 Canids I noted that there has always been a symbiotic relationship between certain canids and humans.
While the British Army was on campaign in India/Afghanistan jackals would follow the camps because of the amount of waste food thrown out -and the waste food also attracted rodents and other prey species. Once the campaign was over the jackals dispersed. Today, in India, jackal packs are living close to human habitation and fed or eat from dumped waste food and, again, that food attracts rodents and jackals, like foxes and coyotes, are excellent pest control.
Of the three types of Old British fox the Cur or Common ox was the smallest and lived close to human habitation and not as raiders of chicken coups (before they even existed) but taking easy meals from human food waste or hunting waste. Some may well have been raised from cubs as pets so what we learn from this article is nothing new. Why D. avus went extinct along with another canid species may be complicated or simply that humans killed them for food and fur.
Next, some items using this news have "artists impression" of D. avus that look like a German Shepherd-red fox cross. We know what D. avus looked like because, before humans wiped them out, some carcasses were sent back to Europe. This is what D. avus looked like...
Foxes were man’s best friend before dogs arrived, archaeologists claim
Archaeologists have revealed an animal that was man’s best friend before the humble dog.
An extinct fox in Argentina may have once been in that role, sharing a “strong bond” with humans, research suggests.
Analysis of 1,500-year-old skeletal remains at a burial site in Patagonia suggests that Dusicyon avus – also known as Falkland Islands wolf – was “a valuable companion to the hunter-gatherer groups”.
The fox bones belong to a single animal while the human remains come from 21 different individuals, in what scientists described as “a very rare and unusual find”.
The team said the findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, represents “a unique case” of partnership between a human and a wild South American fox.
Lack of cut marks on the bones suggest D. avus was not hunted by humans for food, the scientists said.
Study author Dr Ophelie Lebrasseur, of the University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology, said: “There are several factors that led to identifying our fox as a companion or a pet rather than as part of the humans’ diet.
“None of the animal bones present any traces of cut marks, which suggests the individual was not eaten.
“The specimen was buried on a human burial site along with 21 other human beings.
“This is a very rare and unusual find, and suggests it probably held personal significance.
“Finally, its diet resembled that of the humans buried on the site rather than the diet of wild canids, including your typical Dusicyon avus.
“Such a similarity in diets suggests it was either fed by the hunter-gatherers or it fed on the kitchen refuse.”
Researchers say D. avus would have had a body mass of around 10 to 15kg, which is about the size of a German shepherd.
It would have lived in various open areas – with grasses and low shrubs – in large parts of South America, including Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
The archaeological record suggests D. avus went extinct about 500 years ago, the team said, but reasons for their disappearance are unclear.
One theory is that the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia somewhere between 700 and 900 years ago may have contributed to their demise.
However, the researchers said that any possible mating between the two species would not have played a major role in D. avus’s extinction because of “a low probability of producing viable and fertile hybrid offspring”.
And whether these foxes would have made good pets also still remains unknown.
Dr Lebrasseur said: “Some individuals may have been less scared of humans, which may have facilitated the development of a closer bond, but we cannot currently confirm this.”
She added: “We do believe though that finding a Dusicyon avus specimen with such a close relationship with the hunter-gatherer community is very rare and really interesting, and represents quite a unique case of a human-wild South American fox partnership.”
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Firstly, the article's title is flawed. Just because the D. avus was not killed for food does not mean that it was not killed. Cherished horses of owners in the past were killed to be buried with them. The same applies to cats and hounds in the past and if mixed in with human bones it could be the case here although, it needs to be pointed out, there are a lot of leaps being made and claims about why the bones were there. "Man's best friend" is a nonsense. For that to be the case archaeological digs would need to be digging up fox bones with human remains all over the place and this is one find.
We do know that humans and wolves walked together and were likely a hunting team. There is a very interesting video on this subject:
Of course journalist "like a good dog story" and as I learnt decades ago the job of a journalist is not to question facts but to "sex them up" or "dumb them down" to fill columns and sell newspapers. So these people were very unlikely to be taking their pet fox out to play "fetch". If you are interested in the Falklands/Malvinas Island "wolf-fox" then I posted on this a while ago:
https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-falkland-islands-wolfor-fox.html
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