bbc.co.uk navigation

An alert looking maned wolf sitting on grasslands

Maned wolf

Maned wolves have the most incredibly long legs, a characteristic that helps them see above the tall grasses of central South America. They hunt mainly at night and during dusk and dawn hours, while the days are spent dozing in areas of thick bush cover. Unlike other wolves that live in packs, maned wolves are solitary. Mated pairs share a home range but remain fairly independent of each other at all times except during the breeding season.

Scientific name: Chrysocyon brachyurus

Rank: Species

Watch video clips from past programmes (2 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Maned wolf taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Maned wolf can be found in a number of locations including: South America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Maned wolf distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Near Threatened

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Unknown

Year assessed: 2008

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the largest canid of South America, resembling a large fox with reddish fur.

This mammal is found in open and semi-open habitats, especially grasslands with scattered bushes and trees, in south, central-west and south-eastern Brazil (Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Goiás, São Paulo, Federal District and recently Rio Grande do Sul), Paraguay, northern Argentina, Bolivia east and north of the Andes, and far south-eastern Peru (Pampas del Heath only). It is very rare in Uruguay, being possibly extirpated.IUCN lists it as near threatened, while it is considered vulnerable by the Brazilian government (IBAMA). It is the only species in the genus Chrysocyon. It is locally known as aguará guazú (meaning "large fox" in the Guarani language), lobo de crin, lobo de los esteros or lobo colorado, and as lobo-guará in Brazil. It is also called borochi in Bolivia.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.