In Chapter 5, Buck and his mates are described as "perambulating skeletons"; what can you infer by this description of Buck and his mates? Use textual evidence to support your answer.

From the text, we can infer that the dogs were a bit like the walking dead. They were skeletal exhausted, and in grave condition.

They were not half living, or quarter living. They were simply so many bags of bones in which sparks of life fluttered faintly. When a halt was made, they dropped down in the traces like dead dogs, and thespark dimmed and paled and seemed to go out.