Sled Dog - Sled Dogs and The Conquest of The Poles

Sled Dogs and The Conquest of The Poles

Sled dogs played a large role in the conquest of both the North- and South poles. Roald Amundsen successfully employed them to reach the South Pole, whereas Robert Falcon Scott lacked experience in handling these animals, a major reason why he lost the race to Amundsen.

One of the advantages of using sled dogs in polar regions is their uncomplicated food requirements. They can be fed seal meat; it is unnecessary to make elaborate arrangements for bringing along food for them. Amundsen went even further on his expedition to the South Pole. He shot the dogs he no longer required and fed them to his remaining sled dogs.

Although sled dogs are still used in the Arctic, they are now no longer found in the Antarctic. As a foreign species requiring the slaughter of countless seals, the regulations of the Antarctic treaty specified that these animals had to be removed from the continent by 1 April 1994 . The dogs had no real function any longer after snowmobiles had been developed to the stage that they functioned reliably, but for the sake of tradition, the British Antarctic stations had continued to keep them. Shortly before these last sled dogs were transported from the Antarctic to Maine and Hudson Bay, they were used in their traditional role for one last Antarctic expedition. The report about this journey closed with a quotation by Helmer Hanssen, who had been responsible for the welfare of the sled dogs in Amundsen’s South Pole team:

"Dogs like that, which share man's hard times and strenuous work, cannot be looked upon merely as animals. They are supporters and friends. There is no such thing as making a pet out of a sledge dog; these animals are worth much more than that."

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.