O Guara wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is an animal that draws the attention of those who observe it in person. It looks like a fox with long hair and furry legs on stilts.
This canid is widely known for communicating primarily with smell. Like countless other animals, they use urine and droppings to mark their territories. The canine giant has a friendly appearance and is used as a representative in Cerrado conservation campaigns.
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With a length of up to 1.2 meters when fully grown, this species is the largest wild member of the canine family. (Even so, it's nowhere near the heaviest: adult maned wolves can weigh up to 30 kgs, while the gray wolf can weigh up to 80 kgs.)
The maned wolf owes its impressive stature to its disproportionately long legs, which likely evolved due to habitat preference. The animals can generally be found in open grasslands in Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, leading to scientists to theorize that their legs evolved to help them see tall grasses and bushes while looking for fangs.
Despite the name, he is not really a wolf. It also cannot be considered a fox, if we take into account its characteristics. Maned wolves have circular pupils. Real foxes have elliptical, vertically oriented pupils that help them ambush prey in low-light conditions.
Thanks to numerous anatomical peculiarities, the maned wolf cannot be comfortably classified as any type of fox, wolf, dog, coyote or jackal. A 2009 genetic analysis determined that the species' closest relative was the Falkland Islands wolf, which became extinct around 1880.
The last common ancestor of these two mammals likely lived somewhere around 6.7 million years ago.
The researchers believe that, among the animals still alive, the maned wolf is most similar to the crab-eating fox, another strange New World animal. With a rather stocky appearance, the crab-eating fox is notable for having webbed toes that allow it to dig more efficiently and have a semi-aquatic lifestyle.
This canid has a series of vocalizations that are mainly used to communicate with other maned wolves that are at long distances. When angered or distressed, maned wolves will produce a low growl as a warning. They have also been known to let out high-pitched greeting moans.
What do maned wolves eat?? Fecal samples indicate that fruits and vegetables account for one-third of a maned wolf's diet. Canids usually eat roots and bulbs, but prefer a tomato-like fruit known as a lobeira (the fruit's name is derived from the maned wolf's enthusiasm for it).
They are very adept at hunting smaller mammals like armadillos and rodents being common prey items. Reptiles, birds, insects and eggs are also consumed when the opportunity presents itself.
Wolf seeds tend to germinate more efficiently after passing through the digestive tract of a maned wolf. Furthermore, these creatures have a useful habit of defecating directly into anthills.
Insects use this fecal matter to fertilize their fungus gardens. In the process, they toss whatever seeds they can find into the colony's garbage piles, where the seeds can easily take hold and grow into fruiting plants. And so, the entire mutually beneficial cycle repeats itself.
Unlike real wolves, these animals do not form packs. Although adults live in monogamous pairs, the male and female rarely interact outside of the breeding season. For most of the year they hunt, travel and sleep alone. Between April and June, however, the rebel partners come together to reproduce.
After a gestation period of 62 to 66 days, the female gives birth to between one and five young. In captivity, males help raise the young, but whether their wild counterparts follow suit is unknown.
Puppies have fur so dark it almost looks black. As they mature, their coat takes on a predominantly reddish hue, although the lower half of each leg remains dark (they also have a tuft of white on their tail). Then there is the so-called mane, a strand of dark hair that runs down the neck, ending just above the shoulders.
The future of these canids is worrying. Only about 17,000 mature adults are in the wild. Most of them inhabit Brazil, where the local maned wolf population has declined by about 20% over the last 15 years. The animals have long been hunted and killed by chicken farmers across South America.
In addition, maned wolves are susceptible to diseases spread by domestic dogs, many of which act aggressively against their distant cousins. But the biggest threat to the animals is habitat loss. As grasslands and forests regularly become farmland, maned wolves end up suffering the consequences.
Consequently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers this species to be 'near threatened'. This means that, in the not too distant future, the maned wolf may become vulnerable – or worse. Hopefully, increased awareness and captive breeding programs will help change things.
