Image© Jamie Stewart
Maned Wolf
Maned Wolf
Scientific name is Chrysocyon brachyurus
Found in South America, in these countries;
Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina, and
Bolivia.
What habitat do they live in?
© Helena Akerlund/WLT
Maned Wolves can be found in tall
grasslands, shrub habitats, woodland, forest
edges and wet fields.
This is natural grassland on the edge of the
Atlantic rainforest in Paraguay.
Why are they threatened:
Muchbiggest
of the threat
wild habitat
the Maned
Wolf
The
to theof
Maned
Wolf is
the has
loss of
been
turned into farmland.
its
habitat.
Click to learn
more
Whittle/WLT
Burton/WLT
Lorienne
© John
The Maned Wolf may also be killed
• on roads
• by dogs
• by farmers if it is caught raiding chicken coops
• or it may be hunted for sport
This picture shows
a field ofshows
soya that
beenrainforest
from Paraguay
thathas
Atlantic
planted
where
part of the
rainforest
used to grow. You
and natural
grasslands
have
been destroyed.
can see the tree stump of the last rainforest tree.
How do they communicate?
Image of a captive animal © Daniel Ashton/Flickr
Maned Wolves communicate with each
other by scent-marking, and by a loud bark
called a ‘roar-bark’.
What do they eat?
The
favourite
Fruit’
(Solanum
About
½ of thefood
dietisis‘Wolf’s
fruit, and
about
½ of the diet
lycocarpum),
also for
called
‘Wolf
thisboth
fruitplant
is a
is meat (the word
a diet
thatApple’includes
relative
of is
the
potato, but looks like a tomato!
and meat
omnivorous).
The Maned Wolf hunts small animals such as
rodents, armadillos, reptiles, birds, snails, frogs,
insects and sometimes even fish!
© Luiz Claudio Marigo/NPL
Click here to see a Maned Wolf eating a ‘Wolf Apple’
How long do they live?
Image of captive animal © Peter Edin/Flickr
In zoos the Maned Wolf can live up to 16 years,
Click to find out
but no-one knows how long it lives in the wild.
Tell me about their babies:
A female Maned
ClickWolf will give birth to 3 puppies
in a den, after a pregnancy of just over 2 months.
How big are they?
The Maned Wolf is almost a metre tall.
What do they look like?
This strip of black fur is called a ‘mane’
and it stands up if the Maned Wolf
senses danger
End of the tail
is white
White under the chin
Long legs with black
markings like socks
© Pascal Vuylsteker/Flickr
Long reddish-orange fur
Interesting facts:
The Maned Wolf is much more like a fox than a
wolf; it mostly lives alone, it looks a bit like a red
fox, and it has been described as a ‘fox on stilts’
because of its long legs.
The long legs are thought to be an adaptation to
living in long grass. They help the Maned Wolf to
run fast when it is hunting.
In Brazil, there is a story that if the bark of the
Maned Wolf is heard at night there will be a
change in the weather.
A story from the wild:
Maned Wolves are very shy, and so they are hard
to see inClick
thetowild.
Unfortunately
some
learn more
about the Maned
Wolfpeople only
ever see them when they have been killed on the
road.
This is Alan
Click to learn how one man got to see a real life Maned Wolf in
Alan was travelling in South America
the wild
© Kirsty Burgess/WLT
when he heard of an abbey in Brazil
where the monks fed wild Maned Wolves
every night.
Alan decided to go to the abbey to see
if he could get a photograph of a real
life wild Maned Wolf.
A story from the wild:
Alan went to the abbey. He sat on the edge of the
courtyard inside the abbey walls in the dark.
The monks of the abbey made a very loud noise
banging heavy metal trays to let the Maned Wolves
to they
learn how
the putting
monks encouraged
wild they filled
knowClick
that
were
food out.theThen
Maned
Wolves
come inand
to theleft
courtyard
the big
trays
withto meat
them in the middle of
the courtyard.
A tray of raw chicken pieces in the abbey
courtyard
As Alan waited he was told that sometimes only one
ManedClick
Wolf would come, and other nights three or
more would come.
A story from the wild:
Alan was very lucky and saw two Maned Wolves
that night.
© Alan Martin
Click to see a photo of one of the Maned Wolves in the
abbey courtyard
© Ucumari/Flickr
If you choose the Maned Wolf as your fundraising
focus, your donation will go towards World Land Trust
projects for the conservation of wildlife habitat in
Paraguay.