Maned Wolf

🌿Maned Wolf🌿

Its scientific name is Chrysocyon Brachyurus. It belongs in the phylum of Chordota, the class of Mammalia(mammals), the order of Carnivora(carnivores), the family of Canidae(canids) and it's the only member of the genus Chrysocyon(it means golden dog in ancient greek).

About their weight most of my sources said that they weigh around 23kg (on average probably, because there were some sites that said they weigh around 20-30kg) and the pups around 340-430kg(when they are born). Their height ranges from 80 to 90cm on the shoulder and they are 145-190cm long with their tail being 28-40cm. It is the largest Canid in South America.

Their natural habitat consists of semi-open areas, grasslands, wet and dry forests, savannas, marshes, wetlands, dry shrub forests and swampy areas. They can be found in central-west and southerneastern Brazil, Paraguay,northern Argentina and Bolivia east and north of the Andes and far southerneastern Peru(Pampas del Heath only). It is very rare in Uruguay, possibly even displaced(on one of the sources it was mentioned that they went extinct in Uruguay and Argentina, though I only read about them being rare or extinct only in Uruguay in the rest of the sites).

Their lifespan in the wild is unknown and in captivity it is around 12-15 years. Their population today reaches 23,600 wolves.

Maned wolves are mostly active during the twilight period, which makes them Crepuscular animals. They are omnivores, with the 50%(or more) of their diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, they also eat small mammals(armadillos, rabbits, rodents, etc), birds, bird eggs, reptiles, fish, insects, gastropods and other terrestrial mollusks. Their favourite food and most common food item in their diet is Solanum Lycocarpum, or lobeira(= wolf's plant), or fruta-do-lobo(= wolf's fruit), or just wolf plant (in Wikipedia they called it wolf apple but everywhere else they referred to it as one of the above so.), it is a tomato-like fruit and it belongs in a species of flower shrub.

As I already mentioned their diet is mostly vegetables and fruits based, meat heavy diets have been proven to lead to the development of bladder stones.

Going into hunting habits, they are solitary hunters, they rotate their ears to listen for their prey in the grass. They stalk and chase their prey, they jump to catch birds midair, tap the ground to flash out the prey and pounce to catch it. They kill it by biting it on their neck or back and shaking it violently if necessary.

They have 42 teeth total as adults and given that they don't kill or hunt large prey, their upper carnassials (shearing teeth) are reduced, their upper incisors are weak and their canines are long and slender.

Maned wolves do not howl, but they emit loud barks or roar barks to let their mate know where they are and to warn other wolves to stay away. They use urine(that smells like cannabis or hops) and feces, along their borders, to mark their territory.

Pairs share overlapping territory around 25-30km². They meet only to mate during the breeding season, other than that they are independent from each other. They are monogamous and form lifelong bonds. Breeding season is controlled by photoperiod, between October and February in the northern hemisphere and between August and October in South America in captivity. Little is known about the reproductive patterns of wild maned wolves, most of our information on it comes from captive animals. Females are monoestrus, with the estrus lasting for around four days.

The gestation period lasts around 65 days and around 1-5 pups are born, in well hidden nests. The pups' eyes and ears open in day 9 of their lives. They are born with black pelage and in 10 weeks it turns red. The pups are nursed for four weeks and by then their parents feed them by regurgitation for the next 10 months and they are weaned by 15 weeks. 3-month-old pups begin to accompany their mother while she forages. Both parents engage in parental care (though it is primarily done by the mother). The pups are fully grown by the age of 1 year and this is when they leave their parents' territory.

The main threat to this species is habitat loss, but other threats are also road kills, hunting and human activities(deforestation, urban growth etc). They are listed in IUCN as near threatened, in IBAMA and ICMBio as vulnerable species and in CITES in the appendix II category (the appendix reflects the level of threat posed by international trade).

Quick edit to say that despite their appearance and name this species is not closely related to wolves nor foxes.

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@lilzoo @flowerscorpses

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