Giant husky among Antarctic greats

Press, 9 September 1978, Page 13

Giant husky among Antarctic greats

Apolotok was a Greenland dog — or husky, as his breed is better known — born as part of the litter of Scott Base dogs, Lady and Rangi, on April 1, 1971. His coat was of a slight rusty colour, so, using the Greenland Eskimo term, he was named Apolotok, which means the red one.

As a rather shy dog, he did not project the qualities of a leader, but nevertheless he was a highly valued, strong-pulling member of teams of which he was content to be a member. His whole life was spent at Scott Base where summer journeys around the McMurdo Sound area were his lot. When he died on April 22, 1977, he weighed 1241 b, which was heavy even for a husky, the heaviest of the sledge dogs. In recognition of the tremendous part played by draught dogs in the exploration of the Antarctic we decided to exhibit the noble animal. Apolotok’s body was flown to Christchurch and sub-

:cted ter the skills of the xidermist, Terry Jacobs.

Displayed between the Hillary tractor and the motor sledge of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the dog. looking as majestic as he did in real life, claims an honoured place in the Canterbury Museum’s tribute to polar exploration. New Zealanders are prone to confuse the term husky with sledge dog, whereas most sledge dogs are not huskies and most dog teams of early exploration were of other breeds.

All dogs are descended from the wolf and the jackal, and depending on which is predominent are divided into separate genera. If jackal is strongest the genus is Aureus, and when wolf claims dor;inance then Lupus is tne genus.

The Spitz family of dogs are of the Lupus

genus and this term embraces most of the dogs which in a wild state form packs and select a leader, making them ideal for dog-team work. Such dogs usually have their tail cur* ved over their backs — Samoyed, elkhound, keeshond, pomeranian, and husky are cases in point.

Huskies are believed to be descended from the timber wolf of the Arctic regions and bred by the Eskimo people to draw their komatics (sledges) in the winter and to hunt deer and seal during the summer. Powerful and willing workers, they average a shoulder height of 25in and 1001 b in weight.

Greenland allows some huskies to be exported for polar work by other countries, hence the name Greenland dog, but no other breed is allowed into Greenland so that the island may retain its pure strain of dog.

The Antarctic explorers who used this breed of dog were Amundsen, on his successful south polar

bid, 19! 1. Dr Douglas Mawson, 1911, and Sir Edmund Hillarv l<4n7

The breed used mostly in the past in Antarctica was the Samoyed, a dog bred by the" Samoyede people of Russia’s eastern Urals who, being nomadic reindeer herders, used deer for pulling sledges and dogs for herding and hunting, with a little light sledge work when required.

The Samoyed is smaller than a husky and on average weighs' about 601 b. The name Samoyede has been dropped in Russia and replaced by the new tribal name of Nenetsky; the former name meant cannibal or self-eater.

Samoyed were the first dogs on the Antarctic continent when C. E. Borchgrevink in 1899 landed at Cape Adare with more than 90 S.iberian dogs — as they were called then.

They spent the winter in a small hut with nine men. This was the first winter-ing-over party.

When the expedition returned to New Zealand in 1900 many of these dogs were landed on Native Island in Patterson Inlet, Stewart Island, where the Trail family cared for them under the impression that they were to be picked up by the Discovery expedition of Captain Scott.

This was not to be so. Most of the dogs were destroyed but several pure white ones were kept for breeding. These were the first Samoyed dogs in New Zealand and many of the prize breeds today claim relationship with the Borchgrevink dogs. Captain Scott used Samoyed on both the Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions. Nansen, in the famous drift of the Fram across the Arctic in 1893. had Samoyed with him, as indeed did the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition of 1894. Other breeds of draught

dogs which are used in sledge work are the Saghalien, which was favoured by the Japanese Antarctic expedition of 1911. These unfortunate animals suffered great misfortune. On the first attempt of the expedition’s ship Hainan Maru to reach the ice she was stopped by heavy weather and most of the dogs drowned. The next year, with a fresh supply of dogs, a landing was made, but as a result of problems with recovery of one landing party most of the dogs were abandoned ashore and died a slow death of starvation.

One breed of sledge dog which may have been a great success in the Antarctic was the Malamute, which owes its origin to the Malamute tribe of Eskimos of the Seward Peninsula of Northern Canada, who favoured a fas-

ter dog than the husky. Rangier and smaller, they have a close hugging coat and weigh about 80 lb. This is the dog of the Yukon Gold Fields and the only sledge dog likely to respond to the call “Mush, mush.” There is only one Malamute in New Zealand and it is in Christchurch. Further to confuse the issue there is a breed of dog called Siberian husky but it is not very well known. The Chukchi, a Mongol people, bred this animal for fast sledge

work and for herding. It is the most favoured for the sledge races in the north. Today, all dogs in the Antarctic are huskies, coming from a whole variety of sources. So the selection by the Museum of the big, strong, willing Apolotok was very apt. He personifies the very best of draught dogs, whose efforts, more than any other form of transport. resulted in opening up the vast Antarctic continent.

Footnote: In the Mu-s-uim of Nature feature on Saturday, August 19, the date for the birth of Eric Webb was incorrect and should have read 1889 and not 1899.

Bv

BADEN NORRIS,

behalf of the Canterbury Museum