Explorer Dogs:

the race to the south pole

Two teams made the 1911 race for the South Pole; one with sledges pulled by ponies and the other with dogs.

Robert Falcon Scott, the British Royal Navy Officer and explorer chose to bring Shetland ponies on his race to the pole against Roald Amundsen of Norway, who felt dogs were the more sensible choice. Amundsen had used sled dogs to haul supplies through the Northwest Passage and planned to do the same in the race to the pole. Traveling to the pole meant passing through areas thick with crevasses and a fallen dog was much easier to retriever than a pony.

R.F. Scott, though, remained skeptical (and many would say stubborn) about using dogs. He brought them with him, but was reluctant to use them to pull the sledges, preferring the ponies. This cost him the race; Amundsen averaged 25 km per day working the dogs, while R.F. Scott and his team averaged just 6 km per day using the exhausted ponies.

There are many reasons Scott didn’t use the dogs as he should have; he claimed that the us…