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maned_wolf
📅 Updated:2022-07-30
🕒 Created:2016-09-28
🆔 ID:13291
Description
The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the largest canid of South America. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a wolf. It is the only species in the genus Chrysocyon (meaning "golden dog").
It is omnivorous, and though it specializes in preying on small and medium-sized animals, including small mammals (typically rodents and rabbits), birds, and even fish, a large portion of its diet is vegetable matter. It particularly favors the "wolf apple", a tomato-like fruit named for the maned wolf's preference of the fruit.
Maned wolves are ecologically flexible and are even able to survive in human-disturbed areas. Unlike other large canids such as the grey wolf, African wild dog, or dhole, the maned wolf does not form packs.
They are a species threatened by habitat loss and being run over by automobiles. Feral and domestic dogs pass on diseases to them, and have been known to attack them.
