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More from *Eurwentala

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January 10
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:iconeurwentala:
In the year 1520, Europeans discovered the southernmost point of South America. They called it Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire, because campfires of local people could be seen dotting the land.

These people, the Selk'nam and the Yaghans, had their own dogs that were used as hunting companions, and according to some Victorian explorers, the dogs and their masters huddled together for warmth. The Europeans didn't pay much attention to the dogs, apparently since they were busy exterminating both the dogs and their masters to make room for themselves.

However, it was later realized that the now-extinct Fuegian dog was not a dog at all, but a domesticated form of the Andean fox (Pseudalopex culpaeus). All that is known about this remarkable creature now comes from a few traveller's accounts from Victorian times (describing them as "stunted" and "ugly", among other things) and a single stuffed individual in a Chilean museum.

I decided there are far too few pictures of Fuegian dogs on the Internet, so I decided to make my own. Another version of this picture illustrates an article on domesticated canids in my new blog, The Humming Dinosaur: [link]
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:iconvasix:
~vasix Jan 13, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Quite a beauty, this dog
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:iconeurwentala:
*Eurwentala Jan 20, 2013
Thank you. As the Victorian explorers tended to call anything not of European origin ugly, I thought I can just ignore that and make the creature as beautiful as a domesticated fox is likely to be.
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:iconvasix:
~vasix Jan 20, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
:) Nice, It's a pity about the explorers though
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:iconnolo84:
~Nolo84 Jan 10, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
If I may point out, it looks like there's something wrong with the anatomy of his left hind leg and right front leg. Could be an illusion though.
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:iconnolo84:
~Nolo84 Jan 10, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Oh sheesh. It is! Never mind me!
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:iconeurwentala:
*Eurwentala Jan 10, 2013
Ok. :) I was worried for a moment.
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:iconmaxterandkiwiking:
~MaxterandKiwiKing Jan 10, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
It says in your blog that not other canids have ever been domesticated besides dogs.However,scientists in Russia created a domestic breed of silver(melanistic) Red Foxes.They started by catching many silver foxes from the nearby forests,then they only let the tamest foxes breed.They did this for decades until the ended up with a domesticated version.They even saw changes in color and body features in some individuals.
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:iconeurwentala:
*Eurwentala Jan 10, 2013
I know. They are actually mentioned in the first half of the article, in the part about the Lebanon foxes. And they're the main topic of the previous article on the blog, which is linked in the ending. :)

Dmitry Belyaev and his group did not, by the way, catch their silver foxes from the forests, but bought them from local fur farms. The silver mutation doesn't occur in the wild in Russia.
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:iconmaxterandkiwiking:
~MaxterandKiwiKing Jan 10, 2013  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Oh,I missed that part.
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:iconbuitreraptor314:
~buitreraptor314 Jan 10, 2013  Hobbyist General Artist
That's awesome!
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