News Animals

The mysterious, extinct ‘Fuegian dog’ was actually a semi-tame fox

The culpeo may have been crucial partner for the Indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego

A fox with reddish-brown and gray fur stands alert on a moss-covered rocky terrain, staring directly at the camera.

The foxlike culpeo (pictured) may be the biological identity of the enigmatic and extinct “Fuegian dog” of far southern South America.

Wildnerdpix/Getty Images

By Jake Buehler

A strange and mysterious extinct dog breed from far southern South America might not have been a dog at all. 

The “Fuegian dogs” that lived with the Indigenous peoples of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago were semi-tame culpeos, foxlike animals native to South America, researchers report.