The maned wolf is the largest canine of South America. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a wolf. It communicates primarily by scent marking, but also gives a loud call known as ‘roar-barking’ The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists it as near threatened.
About Maned wolf in brief
The maned wolf is the largest canine of South America. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a wolf. It is a crepuscular and omnivorous animal adapted to the open environments of the South American savanna. It communicates primarily by scent marking, but also gives a loud call known as ‘roar-barking’ The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists it as near threatened, while it is considered a vulnerable species by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. The term Maned wolf, as the Crin Wolf in Spanish, is an allusion to the mane of the nape. It was described in 1815 as Canis brachyurus by Johann Wilhelm Illiger. Other authors later considered it as a member of the genus Chrysocyon. Fossils of the maned wolves from the Holocene and the late Pleistocene have been excavated from the Brazilian Highlands. The manedwolf is not closely related to any other living canid. Its closest living relative is the bush dog, and it has a more distant relationship to other South American canines. Speothos venaticus is the only species in the genus. Lycalopex fulvipes is the second-largest canid in the world, after the American dog. It lives in the Cerrado of south, central-west, and southeastern Brazil; Paraguay; northern Argentina; and Bolivia east and north of the Andes, and far southeastern Peru.
It is very rare in Uruguay, possibly being displaced completely through loss of habitat. One conclusion of this study is that the manaed wolves are the only. species among the large South AmericanCanids that survived the late pleistocene extinction. The species was initially classified as Vulpes cancosa, and only in 1839 did Charles Hamilton Smith describe it as Chrysocyon Canis brachesurus. The only specimen of this species was collected in Santa Lagoa, Santa Gerais, on the island of Minas Gera, in the Lagoas region of Brazil. It has since been reclassified as the Canis Brachyurus brachiosus, and later as Vulpes cancosa. It can be found in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru. It weighs between 20 and 30 kg, and reaches up to 90 cm at the withers. It lacks the elliptical pupils found distinctively in foxes. It also has an important role in the seed dispersal of fruits, especially the wolf apple, and is called borochi in Bolivia. A study based on DNA evidence showed that the extinct genus Dusicyon, comprising the Falkland Islands wolf and its mainland relative, was the most closely related species in historical times, and that about seven million years ago it shared a common ancestor with that genus. A 2003 study on the brain anatomy of several canids placed the maning wolf together with the Falklands wolf.
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This page is based on the article Maned wolf published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
