When Western sailors started landing on the Falkland Islands, off the curling tip of South America, they were greeted by a bizarrely tame dog-like creature. It roamed wild across the islands, but would frequently swim out to meet the approaching boats while wagging its tail. Although some called it a fox, it became more commonly known as the Falkland Islands wolf. Its scientific name: Dusicyon australis, the foolish dog of the south.

The name was apt. The wolf’s fearlessness made it extremely easy to kill. People lured it in with meat, and either clubbed or knifed it. By 1880, it was extinct, but not before a young, twenty-something naturalist called Charles Darwin managed to see one for himself in 1834.

Darwin