Ethiopian Wolf on Brink of Extinction
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The Ethiopian Wolf has a very distinctive red tinged coat and are long legged and slender. They are closely related to coyotes and grey wolves. They are one of the rarest carnivores in the world and there are only about 500 left.
Most of them live high up in the Ethiopia's Bale Mountains, which is about 3,000m above sea level. They have an intricate social structure and live in large family packs. There are only 7 isolated populations in the world.
Ethiopian Wolves are three times as rare as the Giant Pandas. They are threatened by loss of habitat. They are also endangered by the hybridization of the wolf with domestic dogs. The domestic dogs carry and spread lethal diseases among the wolves.
These wolves live in close knit territorial packs, but they feed and forage alone on small prey. The Ethiopian wolves are usually most active in the day. They seem to do their foraging when the rodents are active during the day.
They are social animals and usually congregate and do border patrols of their territory at dawn, noon and evenings. They sleep in the open and curl up. During breeding season only pups and nursing females use the den. They mark their territory by scent marking through scratching and urinating.
The Born Free Foundation has an Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme (EWCP) that is helping to save the wolves and the Afroalpine habitats. They are promoting the conversation of the delicate Afroalpine ecosystems.
They are funding Ethiopian Nationals to help them receive training for working with The EWCP field team. They are learning how to monitor the wolves, disease protection and community education. They are also helping to find funds to secure the Bale Mountains National Park and hoping to develop eco tourism in the area.
We all need to do our part to help save endangered species like the Ethiopian Wolf. If we all work together and do our part we can make the world more aware of the fragility of our environment, and how important species preservation is for future generations.
