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October 2, 2005

Canis Africanus

Everyone knows about the big cats of Africa - the lion, the leopard, the cheetah. The canine species are less well known, and yet most of the canine species of Africa are much more threatened than the big cats.

Canidae is the family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals commonly known as canines, and is broken into two rather murky groups - "true dogs" and "foxes". Canids are digitigrades - animals that walk on their toes, which is generally faster and quieter than other methods and therefore a beneficial feature for a stealth predator. Dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals. Although hyenas look like rather large wild dogs, they are a separate biological family more closely related to mongooses and meerkats.

Now, you may have heard of the plight of the African wild dog or the cute little bat-eared fox. I've seen black-backed jackals munch on giraffe alongside a hyena pack and a young male lion. But until recently, I'd never heard of a wolf existing in Africa.

The Ethiopian Wolf, which has also been misidentified as a jackal and a fox - for its small size and bright red fur, is perhaps the rarest and most endangered canid in the world. Found in Africa’s alpine regions, above 10,000 feet, a small population struggles to avoid extinction. According to Wikipedia, only about seven packs/populations remain in the wild, totaling about 500 mature animals. The wolves are facing a myriad of threats - from encroachment and farmers to inbreeding and cross-breeding with domestic dogs to disease. Back in 1990, a single rabies outbreak was transmitted from domestic dogs, reducing the largest known population of Ethiopian wolves from about 440 wolves to less than 160 in just two weeks time.

The Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme was established to study and protect the species. They provide more information about the wolf than I have been able to find anywhere else on the web. They've also got lots of great pictures. Recently, National Wildlife Magazine did a piece on the African wolf, including some really beautiful photography.

In contrast to other wolf species, Ethiopian wolves primarily hunt alone. Excellent predators, they use a variety of strategies to catch prey. Sometimes they stalk small rodents, pouncing on the victims. Other times, they dig up soil to get at a nest of young, or pat the ground to flush rats out of a hole, nabbing the animals as they try to escape. True to their wolf genes, the predators do occasionally group together to hunt larger prey—a young mountain nyala or reedbuck, for example—although these attempts are usually unsuccessful.

The predators’ unusual hunting strategies, combined with other non-wolflike qualities, once caused confusion about the species’ identity. At first, the animals were considered jackals, and later foxes: They forage alone and bark like jackals, but their orange-red coats resemble those of foxes. Recent genetic evidence, however, tells a different story, confirming the animals are indeed wolves, which split from their closest living relatives, gray wolves, just over 100,000 years ago.

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Ethiopian wolves are also susceptible to inbreeding and other problems associated with small populations. The species now has the lowest genetic diversity of any carnivore in the world. In addition to genetic problems, small populations are vulnerable to chance events. If a population of ten wolves, for example, produces two successive litters in which only male pups survive, it would become predominantly male and no longer be viable.

More at: National Wildlife Magazine: Africa's Lone Wolf

Posted by sorsha at October 2, 2005 9:05 PM