Wildlife
Ethiopian wolves number fewer than 500 in the wild, and have the unfortunate title of the most threatened canid in the world. They are the only wolf species to exist in Africa, reduced to a handful of mountain ranges by pressures on their habitat. Ethiopian wolves live in close-knit territorial packs. Strong social bonds exist between members of the group. Adults gather to patrol and mark the territory at dawn and dusk repelling intruders, but individual pack members tend to forage alone.
Scientific name: Canis simensis
Rank: Species
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Rat catchers
Ethiopian wolves are adapted to hunt very specific prey.
Ethiopian wolves are adapted to hunt very specific prey.
Saving wolves
Graham Norton visits the roof of Africa to report on Ethiopian wolves.
Ethiopian wolves are the world’s most endangered canine with fewer than 500 adults surviving in just a handful of small, isolated pockets in the mountains of Ethiopia. Their specialisation for the alpine altitude makes their survival all the more precarious. With the continued loss of habitat resulting from the spread of farming and from overgrazing, the wolves are running out of places to live and their small population makes them vulnerable to diseases such as rabies. Conservation efforts to sterilise and vaccinate the local domestic dogs together with community education projects and eco-tourism might be beginning to help the Ethiopian wolf's cause.
On the edge
The last bastion of the Ethiopian wolf is shrinking fast.
Pups mob the adults as they return to the den, until food is regurgitated for the pups to eat. The scene may look idyillic, but the Ethiopian wolf's fragile habitat is shrinking as Africa's climate continues to warm up and the highlands are eroded. The remaining 1,000 wolves are truely marrooned on the roof of Africa.
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Ethiopian wolf can be found in a number of locations including: Africa. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Ethiopian wolf distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Endangered
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), also known as the Abyssinian wolf, Abyssinian fox, red jackal, Simien fox, or Simien jackal is a canid native to Africa. The numerous names reflect previous uncertainty about its taxonomic position, but it is now thought to be related to the wolves of the genus Canis rather than the foxes it superficially resembles. The Ethiopian wolf is found at altitudes above 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in the Afro-alpine regions of Ethiopia, and is the top predator of the ecosystem. It is the most endangered species of canid that has not been extinct in the wild, with only about seven populations remaining, totalling roughly 550 adults. The largest population is found in the Bale Mountains in southern Ethiopia, although there are also smaller populations in the Semien Mountains in the north of the country, and in a few other areas. Claudio Sillero-Zubiri at the University of Oxford is the zoologist most closely associated with efforts to save this species of wolf, particularly with his work for an oral rabies vaccine to protect them from the disease passed from local dogs. His work is supported by the Born Free Foundation. A rabies outbreak in 1990 reduced the largest known population, found in the Bale Mountains National Park, from about 440 wolves to less than 160 in only two weeks.
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Helpless young
Ambush predator
Carnivorous
Co-operative breeding
Dry tolerant
Hierarchical
Burrower
Acoustic communication
Maternal care
Social
Adapted to running
Chemical communication
Sexual dimorphism
Territorial
Visual communication
Viviparous
Monogamous
Nocturnal