Maned wolf, walking trails in Cerrado, Brazil, South America. (Joe McDonald).
- Conservationists in Argentina have released a rare and unusual-looking maned wolf into the wild around Buenos Aires.
- This endangered species is moving to the south of the country due to hunting, deforestation, global warming and extreme weather.
- Maned wolves are elusive animals with a diverse diet, ranging from rodents, amphibians, and birds to eggs and plants.
- For climate change news and analysis, visit: News24 The future of climate.
Conservationists in Argentina have released a rare and unusual-looking animal, the maned wolf, into the wild around Buenos Aires. With its long black legs and red fur, the animal looks like a fox on stilts or a fox wearing knee-high boots.
The natural habitat of the endangered species is usually in the hot northeast of the country, but it is slowly moving south, and experts believe this is linked to land clearing for agriculture, hunting, global warming and more extreme weather. He said that
“This (migration) is a phenomenon that occurs in many species of large vertebrates,” said Marcela Orozco, a doctor of biology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences CONICET.
“It is closely related to climate change, deforestation, environmental degradation and indiscriminate use of natural resources, which begins to change the geographical distribution of species.”
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The Temaiken Foundation, a nonprofit organization specializing in the conservation of wild species, found and adopted a lost male maned wolf in Olavarria, a town in Buenos Aires province, in December.
The maned wolf was released Thursday into the Paraná River Delta, where other wolf species have been sighted, after undergoing a medical examination and camera-trap testing to see if it could survive returning to the wild. Ta.
To continue monitoring it after its release, Temaiken experts installed a satellite collar on it and more camera traps in the area.
“This is an animal that we want completely released back into the wild,” said Guillermo Delfino, head of the Temaiken Foundation's endangered species program.
“We use a variety of equipment, including camera traps, which allows us to fully see and record all their activities during the day and night.”
Despite their menacing appearance, maned wolves are elusive animals with a diverse diet, ranging from rodents, amphibians, and birds to eggs and plants.