Maned wolf

Maned wolves eat fruit and small animals.

They love a fruit called lobeira, the "wolf's fruit". They also catch mice, rabbits, birds and bugs.

Maned wolves are omnivores: they eat both plants and animals. About half of what they eat is fruit and vegetables. Their favorite is lobeira, a small fruit that looks like a tomato; its name means "fruit of the wolf."

They also hunt small animals such as rodents, rabbits, birds and insects. A maned wolf turns its big ears to listen for prey in the grass, taps the ground with a front foot to scare it out, then pounces. It can even leap into the air to catch birds and insects.

The maned wolf is omnivorous, eating fruit, arthropods and small to medium vertebrates. In droppings, plant and animal items appear about equally often, but animal matter usually makes up more of the biomass eaten (IUCN). The National Zoo reports that fruits and vegetables make up about half the diet, notably lobeira, the "fruit of the wolf", a small, tomato-like berry.

Prey includes rodents, rabbits, birds and insects. The wolf locates prey by swiveling its large ears, taps the ground with a forefoot to flush it, then pounces or digs; it also leaps to catch birds and insects. Where rodents are abundant, maned wolves use low croplands near natural grassland.

A mom and dad maned wolf share a home area.

But they usually hunt on their own. They bark loudly to talk to each other.

Maned wolves live in pairs: a male and a female share a territory, but they usually hunt alone. The National Zoo says a pair's territory covers about 26 square kilometers.

Maned wolves do not howl. Instead, they give loud "roar-barks" to tell their partner where they are and warn other maned wolves to stay away. They also mark their borders with smelly urine and droppings. They can be active at night or in the day, depending on the weather.

Maned wolves live as monogamous pairs that share a territory but mostly forage alone. IUCN figures put home ranges at 20 to 115 square kilometers, usually 50 to 80, and about 30 in agricultural northern Argentina; overlap is greatest between females and between paired males and females, with very little among males.

Once thought to be crepuscular and nocturnal, they are now known to be cathemeral: in Bolivia they were strictly nocturnal in the dry season and foraged farther when temperatures were 21 to 28 °C, cutting activity above 28 °C. They communicate with loud roar-barks rather than howls, and with scent marks. Only pumas and domestic dogs have been reported to kill them.

There are fewer maned wolves than before.

Their grassland homes are being turned into farms and roads. People are working to protect them and their grasslands.

The maned wolf is listed as Near Threatened. Its biggest problem is losing its grassland home: the National Zoo says the cerrado has shrunk to about a fifth of its original size, as land is turned into farms and roads. Many maned wolves are also hit by cars.

Pet and farm dogs can attack them and spread diseases. Zoos, including the Smithsonian's National Zoo, run breeding programs and work with scientists and communities in South America to protect maned wolves.

The IUCN assessed the maned wolf as Near Threatened in 2015 (annotated as needing an update), estimating about 17,000 mature individuals, over 90 percent in Brazil, with 613 in Paraguay and 487 in Argentina; fewer than 40 survive in Peru's Pampas del Heath. Modeling with deforestation rates of 1.0 to 1.5 percent a year projected a roughly 20 percent decline over three generations.

The main threat is habitat conversion for agriculture, with roadkill and domestic dogs, through attacks and disease, also important. The National Zoo notes that maned wolves are listed as endangered on the Brazilian Red List and on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's endangered species list, and the Zoo coordinates the Maned Wolf Species Survival Plan for breeding, field research, habitat protection and education.