The Great Antarctic Explorers Part II: The Animals
Scott's ponies at work. The unsung heroes of the great era of Antarctic exploration are the animals: the dogs and horses that carried Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott and others to their goals, and the seals and penguins that fed and warmed them. And even the cats that comforted the explorers on their ships. Below are some summaries of what the animals endured, using some of the the explorers' own words. Ponies Both Shackleton (the Nimrod Expedition) and Scott (the Terra Nova expedition) used Manchurian or Siberian ponies in their efforts to reach the Pole. Both of their expeditions failed at least in part because they chose to use ponies instead of dogs. Why did they take them? Because Scott and Shackleton (part of his Scott's crew) struggled with dogs on the earlier Discovery expedition. The dogs fought with each other, never formed cohesive units, fell sick and into crevasses. Only twenty dogs were taken with the Discovery and the trouble they...