One genetic secret. The maned wolf is a long-legged predator of South America: a description with photos and videos

One unique animal lives in South America, which is called the maned wolf (guara). It has both the features of a wolf and a fox and belongs to relic animals. Guara has an unusual appearance: graceful, atypical for a wolf, physique, long legs, sharp muzzle and rather large ears.

Description of the maned wolf

In appearance, a maned wolf simultaneously resembles a dog. It is not a very large animal. The length of his body is usually a little over a meter, and the height is 60-90 centimeters. The weight of an adult wolf can reach 25 kilograms.

Appearance

Its distinguishing feature is a sharp, fox-like muzzle, long neck and large, protruding ears. The body and tail are rather short, and the limbs are thin and long. The color of the maned wolf is also interesting. The predominant brown color of the coat in the belly area is replaced by yellow, and in the mane area - by reddish. A characteristic feature is also dark tan marks on the paws, the tip of the tail and the muzzle of the animal.

Guar wool is thick and soft. Along the back, it is somewhat longer than on other parts of the body, and forms a kind of "mane". In moments of danger, it can rise almost vertically. It is thanks to her that the maned wolf got its name. The long legs of a maned wolf are not well suited for running, they are rather designed to move through tall grass and better view the surroundings. It is noteworthy that guar cubs are born short-toed. The paws lengthen as the animal grows.

Character and lifestyle

Males and females of maned wolves lead a solitary lifestyle to a greater extent, uniting in pairs only during mating seasons. For them, the formation of packs is uncharacteristic, as for most canids. The peak of activity is in the evening and at night.

During the daytime, the guar usually rests among dense vegetation or in its lair, which the animal equips in an abandoned, empty hole or under a fallen tree. During daylight hours, it may be forced to move short distances. With the onset of darkness, the maned wolf goes hunting, combining it with patrolling its territory (usually these are areas up to 30 sq. M).

It is interesting! Animals feed alone. Long paws allow them to see prey over dense and tall vegetation, and large ears allow them to hear it in the dark. To better look around, the guar stands on its hind legs.

Males of the maned wolf are more active than females. The social structure in these animals is represented by a mating couple, which occupies a certain area of ​​territory marked with excrement. The couple keeps quite independently: rest, food production and patrolling the territory are done alone. In captivity, animals keep more closely together - they feed, rest and raise offspring together. For males, the construction of a hierarchical system also becomes characteristic.

An interesting feature of the maned wolf is the sounds it makes. If a long and loud hooting is heard from the dense thickets of grass, this means that the animal in this way drives away uninvited guests from its territory. They are also able to make growls, loud barks and slight grunts.

Guar is not dangerous for people, there has not been a single recorded case of this animal attacking a person. Despite the ban on killing these animals, the number of the maned wolf is steadily declining. Locals exterminate it for sporting interest. The guar is not a very agile animal and is an easy prey for hunters, and the owners of the farms destroy it to protect livestock.

How long do guars live

Guar reaches sexual maturity in a year. The life expectancy of a maned wolf can reach 10-15 years.

Range, habitats

The habitat of the maned wolf is in certain countries of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia). The habitats of this animal are mainly the pampas (South American lowlands with a subtropical climate and steppe vegetation).

Maned wolves are also common in dry savannas, in campos (tropical and subtropical ecosystem), as well as in hilly and wooded areas. There have been cases of guar habitat in marshy areas. But in the mountains and rain forests, this animal is not found. It is rare throughout its range.

Maned wolf diet

Although the maned wolf is a predatory animal, its diet contains a lot of food not only of animal, but also of plant origin. The guar feeds mainly on small rodents, rabbits, large insects, reptiles, fish, mollusks, as well as birds and their eggs. Occasionally attacks rare deer for the pampas.

It is interesting! If a maned wolf lives near human settlements, then he is quite capable of raiding their farms, attacking lambs, chickens or pigs. Therefore, local residents are trying in every possible way to drive the guar away from their possessions.

Despite the fact that the maned wolf is a predator, he does not hunt very successfully. This animal cannot run fast because it has a small lung capacity. And underdeveloped jaws do not allow him to attack large animals, so armadillos, rats, tuko-tuko and agouti form the basis of his diet. In lean, dry years, maned wolves may form small packs, allowing them to prey on larger animals.

Reproduction and offspring

Mating games and the breeding season for guars fall in mid-autumn and winter. In the wild, offspring appear in the dry season (June-September). The female arranges a lair in secluded places with dense vegetation.

It is interesting! She bears offspring for 60-66 days. Usually, one to seven puppies are born, which is what wolf cubs are called.

Wolf cubs have a dark gray color and a white tip of the tail.. Their weight is 300-400 grams. For the first 9 days after birth, puppies remain blind. Their ears begin to stand after a month, and the coat begins to acquire the color characteristic of adults only after 2.5 months. For the first month, the female feeds her offspring with milk, after which she adds solid, semi-digested food to their diet, which she regurgitates to them.

Observations of animals in captivity have shown that females and males are engaged in raising offspring together. Males are actively involved in raising young. He gets food, protects the female and young from uninvited guests, plays with puppies and teaches them to hunt and get their own food. Young animals reach puberty by the age of one, but they start breeding only after two years of age.

Conservation measures are primarily aimed at saving species that are on the verge of extinction and also attract our interest. For a long time, North American met both of these criteria. However, now the question of its origin has sharply arisen. Therefore, its survival may depend on whether it is a separate species at all.

Most wolves belong to the species Canis lupus, which has several separate morphological types that occupy certain parts of the range, including the timber and tundra wolves. In the past, zoologists mostly viewed the red wolf as a species in its own right, distributed across the eastern United States, from Pennsylvania in the north to Texas in the west. According to the traditional view, human persecution and the increasing destruction of habitats as a result of economic activities have doomed this species to extinction. The disappearance of individual populations of the red wolf began in the 60s. XX century; by 1980 only about 80 individuals remained, most of which live in captivity.

But soon a different view of this problem appeared. Some scientists even challenged the species status of the red wolf. In their opinion, the red wolf did not evolve over millions of years, but arose as a result of the hybridization of coyotes and gray wolves during human settlement and disruption of the structure of the natural populations of these animals. Habitat loss caused a mixture of previously isolated populations, and such hybrid individuals became a transitional form to the red wolf.

Intensive research into the anatomical and genetic features of the red wolf over the past few years has yielded conflicting results. The study of behavioral features, morphological characteristics of the skull, mitochondrial DNA and micro-satellite part of DNA confirmed the species status of the red wolf. The red wolf originated in the early Pleistocene more than 500,000 years ago, and more importantly, it was the precursor from which modern coyotes and gray wolves are descended. According to this theory, the number of the red wolf began to decline in nature after 1940. In this regard, coyotes and red wolf-coyote hybrids replaced red wolves in most of the original range.

But there is also genetic evidence in favor of the hybridization theory. The results of most studies conducted in the 1990s support the new hypothesis that gray wolves and coyotes may have interbred repeatedly prior to European settlement in the southern and central United States, although the possibility that crossbreeding may have occurred recently, in the result of human-induced environmental changes.

In an unexpected twist to this story, further genetic studies have shown a close relationship between the red wolf and wolves living in southeastern Canada, which were previously considered gray wolves. The connection has also been confirmed by morphology and fossil remains. Perhaps the most interesting trait of red wolves is their ability to interbreed with coyotes, which makes both species prone to genetic mixing. According to the new point of view, a significant part of those animals that were considered gray wolves living in eastern Canada and the Great Lakes region may turn out to be red wolves or hybrids of gray and red. And the "coyotes" that now inhabit the eastern United States may be hybrids of coyotes and red wolves.

Red wolves are virtually indistinguishable in appearance from their much more common cousins, the gray wolves. Only a few individuals have a reddish coloration. An example is this beautiful specimen, which is a mixture of tawny, fawn, gray and black.

This new information allowed us to put forward another hypothesis for the origin of the red wolf. She suggests that gray wolves, red wolves, and coyotes are descendants of a common North American ancestor, where the red wolf and coyote form one evolutionary branch and the gray wolf form another. According to this model of evolution, the predecessor of all modern wolves migrated to Eurasia 1-2 million years ago, where it developed into the modern gray wolf before returning to North America in the Pleistocene, about 300,000 years ago. Around the same time, the Eastern Canadian red wolf and the coyote, which originated in North America, split.

It is clear that red and gray wolf recovery efforts in North America need to be reassessed if red wolf populations remain in southeast Canada. This is much more than a purely academic interest, given that the Ministry of Nature and Fisheries spends approximately $4 million annually on red wolf reintroduction.

It is now believed that the wolves of southeast Canada are a mixture of hybrids between different forms - between the Old World gray wolf of the lupus type and the local New World lycaon type wolf, and between the red wolf and the coyote and the gray wolf. Some of them may also be gray wolf-coyote hybrids. Although geneticists believe that direct hybridization between gray wolves and coyotes is unlikely to occur, it is possible that it happened "step by step": red wolf-coyote hybrids mated with gray wolves.

The dilemma for conservation organizations is to determine if such hybridization has taken place, was it due to human influence? If the red wolf is not a real species, then the question of the degree of human participation in this phenomenon becomes more than controversial. If this is a real species and hybridization is a natural phenomenon, then it is more of a "process" of speciation rather than a "steady state". If hybridization is caused by human activities, then this wolf should be protected for all the reasons why we work to preserve biodiversity in nature. The lesson is that we must pay equal attention to the protection of evolutionary processes and the protection of species. Until now, conservationists have focused only on the protection of the species themselves, but such an approach is inappropriate on the scale of evolutionary time. It is likely that the evolution of North American wolves has not ended, it is happening before our eyes. Despite the advent of genetic methods that have increased our ability to study taxonomy, gaping gaps remain in our knowledge of the relationship of wild wolves. The discovery of a recipe for the formation of natural "wolf hybrids" in North America is an important area of ​​work for the protection of endangered species.

Titles: red wolf, red wolf.

area: At the beginning of the last century, the natural range of the red wolf was limited to the southeastern United States - from Florida to east-central Texas, including southeastern Tennessee, Alabama, most of Georgia and Florida and further north to south Illinois. At present, the species has been reintroduced only in North Carolina over an area of ​​approximately 6000 km2.

Description: From their closest relative - the gray wolf, red wolves are smaller in size. The red wolf is slimmer, with longer legs and ears, and shorter fur. The annual molt occurs in summer. The red wolf is larger than the coyote.

Color: The color of the fur is red, brown, gray and black. The back is usually black. The muzzle and limbs are reddish, the end of the tail is black. The rufous coloration from which the species takes its name was predominant among the Texan populations. Red fur also dominates in winter.

The size: Body length is 100-130 cm, tail - 30-42 cm, height at withers - 66-79 cm.

The weight: Adult males weigh 20-40 kg, females are usually 1/3 lighter and weigh 18-30 kg.

Lifespan: In nature - 4 years; according to other sources - up to 13 years; in captivity, they lived up to 14-16 years.
Observations in areas of wolf reintroduction in 1993 showed that the survival of adult red wolves was about 50% after 3 years of their living in the wild.

Habitat: The species was apparently most numerous in the former vast forests along the banks of the rivers and swamps of the southeastern United States, characterized by growing in the upper layer of pine, and in the lower layer of evergreen shrubs. Initially, red wolves had a wide historical distribution, where they used a wide range of habitat types. They lived not only in the forests on the swampy lowlands, but also on the coastal prairies. Red wolves are now being repopulated in hard-to-reach mountainous and swampy areas.

Enemies: Red wolves can become victims of other wolves (gray wolves, coyotes), including relatives from other packs. Young animals can be preyed upon by large predators - alligators and bobcats.
Threats to the red wolf: loss of habitat due to human activity and illegal hunting, and competition and hybridization with coyote.

Food: In the past, the red wolf was able to take and eat any animal up to the size of a small deer. The food of the red wolf was mainly rodents (including nutrias and muskrats), as well as rabbits and raccoons; occasionally the pack managed to get pigs and white-tailed deer. In addition to the diet were insects and berries, as well as carrion.

Behavior: In terms of lifestyle, the red wolf is close to the common wolf. It is active at dusk and dawn, and during the winter, it may increase the time of its activity due to the day. Red wolves are very secretive and avoid people and places of his activity.
They hunt in packs. It has been established that a pack of red wolves, consisting of 11 different individuals, needs up to about 100 km 2 of territory in order to hunt and live normally. In one area, they usually hunt for about 7-10 days, and then move to another area.
Red wolves communicate with each other through a complex set of dynamic, tactile, chemical, and auditory (sound) signals. Body language, pheromones and vocalizations serve to convey information about the social and reproductive status of pack members and their mood. Social contact in a pack is often achieved through touch (tactile contact). Territory marking with scent marks is rarely used.

social structure: Red wolves are social animals that live in packs with a complex social organization similar to the gray wolf. Packs are primarily family groups that consist of a breeding pair (family) and its offspring, both young and grown, usually five to eight animals. Flocks of red wolves are smaller than those of gray wolves. Sometimes families get bigger. The size of the flock changes and forms depending on the abundance of food. The hierarchy of dominant and subordinate animals within a pack is designed to ensure that the pack functions as a cohesive unit. There are practically no manifestations of aggression in the family, however, family members are unfriendly towards unfamiliar wolves.

reproduction: Red wolves live in families in which only the dominant (alpha) pair breeds, which, like other wolves, is created for a long time, and often for life. The remaining members of the group participate in the protection and education of offspring and bring food to the nursing she-wolf.
Female dens are arranged in pits under fallen trees, in hollow trunks, in sandy slopes and along river banks. Sometimes dens are dug by the wolves themselves, and often they are occupied by ready-made dens dug by other animals.
Interbreeding of the red wolf with the coyote was noted, which was recognized as the most significant and harmful threat to the red wolf population in natural habitats. Coyote reduction efforts are being actively pursued to conserve the wild red wolf population in northeastern North Carolina.

Season/breeding period: February March.

Puberty: Rarely at 10 months, usually at 22 - 46 months.

Pregnancy: Lasts 60-63 days.

Offspring: In a litter, on average, 3-6 puppies (rarely - up to 12), which are born in the spring. Offspring are engaged in both parents and all members of the flock.
Lactation lasts up to 8-10 weeks. Puppies become independent at 6 months.

Benefit / harm to humans: Red wolves are important as top predators in the ecosystems in which they live. Red wolves eat a lot of rodents, so they help regulate their numbers.
Red wolves were previously thought to be a serious threat to livestock. However, in reality, this threat was greatly exaggerated, although they may sometimes kill local animals.

Population/conservation status : The red wolf is listed in the International Red Book as Critically Endangered.
Until the middle of the XX century. red wolves were exterminated for attacks on livestock and game (the accusations are greatly exaggerated). In 1967, the species was declared endangered (Endangered), and by 1980 the red wolf was considered extinct in nature, and in captivity by this time there were less than 20 individuals left, and then measures began to be taken to save it. In 1997, biologists already counted about 80 red wolves in two habitats. In addition, there were 160 animals living in captivity.
The entire current population of red wolves descended from 14 individuals kept in captivity. Now there are approximately 270 individuals in the world, 100 of which were released into the wild in North Carolina.
The red wolf is intermediate in many characteristics between gray wolves and coyotes.
Fossils discovered about 750,000 years old indicate that the red wolf may be the descendant of a relatively more primitive ancestor of the North American wolf, which existed here even before the advent of both the gray wolf and the coyote.
Traditionally, there were three subspecies of the red wolf, two of which have become extinct.
Canis rufus floridanus extinct by 1930 Canis rufus rufus declared extinct in 1970, Canis rufus gregoryi extinct in nature by 1980.
Gorna Island, located 8 miles off the coast of the Mississippi, serves as the main breeding ground for red wolves in captivity with a view to their further reintroduction into the wild.

Copyright holder.

The red wolf is considered the rarest representative of the wolf family (lat. Canis rufus), which in the old days inhabited a vast territory in the eastern United States from Pennsylvania to Texas.

In the 70s of the 20th century, through the efforts of a man who saw a predator as a threat to livestock, he was practically destroyed. Only 14 individuals survived, which became the ancestors of the entire current population.

Today, there are about three hundred red wolves in the world, one hundred of which run free in the reserves of North Carolina and Tennessee. They resemble gray wolves in appearance, but their fur is shorter and their limbs and ears are longer. In general, redheads are slimmer than their gray brothers. The body length of males sometimes reaches 130 cm, the tail - up to 42 cm, and the height at the withers - up to 79 cm. Formidable predators weigh from 20 to 40 kg, females are less than a third.

Actually, these wolves are red in winter, in summer there is an annual molt, which makes the overall color grayish. The back and tip of the tail are usually black, the muzzle and paws are red all year round. The general color also contains brown and gray colors.

Another danger for the red wolf was its hybridization with the coyote, from which it differs in larger sizes. In addition, these two species compete because of a similar diet: the red menu also includes rabbits and. Very rarely, the pack manages to catch a deer or a pig. Do not disdain carrion and large insects. Sometimes plants and berries are eaten.

But red predators prefer to avoid meeting with a person. Throughout history, not a single case of their attack on people has been recorded. Obviously, the poor fellows already get it from alligators, other wolves, and to look for additional dangers.

The lifestyle of these dogs is similar to other species. Only their flocks are usually small, but they are also dominated by one pair, which gives offspring. All other members of the family are wolf cubs from different generations. Inside the pack, everyone lives together - the elders take care of the younger ones and all together bring food to the nursing she-wolf.

The breeding season lasts from January to March, pregnancy lasts about two months and ends with the birth of 3-6 (rarely 12) wolf cubs. The female builds a lair in abandoned burrows of other animals, in sandy slopes or in pits under trees. Babies feed on mother's milk for 8-10 weeks, gradually switching to "adult" food. By the year they become independent and reach sexual maturity.

If they decide to stay in the pack, they do not have the right to have offspring. Although the atmosphere inside such a family is warm, they are aggressive towards strange wolves. They communicate with each other using body language, pheromones, vocalizations and touch. The territory is rarely marked with smell.

It has been established that one family of red wolves needs about 100 square meters for a normal life. m. At the same time, they remain in one place for no more than 10 days, constantly wandering in search of new prey. These red predators are an important link in the local ecosystem, controlling the number of rodents that pose a greater threat to agriculture than the wolves themselves.

Currently, work is underway to restore their population in the wild, and the species is listed in the International Red Book.

The rarest species of wolves is a predatory animal of the canine family, a subspecies of the common wolf is the object of the International Red Book and has been in critical danger since 1967. For a long time it was classified as a separate species of Canis rufus. Nature lovers often confuse it with the red wolf (Cuon alpinus).

APPEARANCE, PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS, STRUCTURAL FEATURES

Red wolves are a small replica of the gray wolf. They are lean, legs and ears are longer than those of gray relatives. In the color of the skin, the main color is brownish-gray, the end of the tail and back are painted black, and there are red ones - a muzzle with a white fur frame around the lips and legs.

The fur is hard and short. Moreover, a pronounced red in a wolf happens in winter, and in summer it sheds. At the withers, the wolf grows up to eighty centimeters with a body length of 100 to 130 centimeters. It is larger than a coyote. Weight ranges from 20 to 40 kg, and the female is usually three times lighter.

LIFESTYLE OF THE RED WOLF

Habitat

The red wolf settles in the prairie zone, in heavily wetlands, near rivers, among rare pines and shrubs, or in impenetrable mountains. Hollows of trees, high sandy shores serve as a lair for him.

Sociality, habits, other features of life

Packs of red wolves are small and consist of the main family couple, their offspring of different ages. Lead the nightlife. There is virtually no aggression inside the pack, but members of other families are expelled.

Pairs of red wolves are constant. In a flock, the number of individuals fluctuates around fifteen. There is a hierarchy in the pack - its members "work" for the nursing she-wolf, which they call dominant: they arrange a den for her, protect, feed, look after the offspring. Only she gives offspring in one flock.

Nutrition, ways of getting food

Red wolves feed on both animal and plant foods. The result of individual or group hunting at night are rodents: for example, hares, nutria, raccoons, occasionally - a ram, deer, elk or carrion. Berries are a vitamin supplement. Red wolves know how to stock up - when all members of the pack are full, the rest of the food is buried.

Reproduction, growth, lifespan

The breeding season starts in January. The she-wolf cubs in 60 - 63 days and already in March the flock is replenished from 3 to 6 cubs, there were cases - 12 cubs were born. Wolf parents tenderly care for children. Six months later, the offspring are already independent, but remain in the flock from 1 to 4 years, and then create their own family flock.

In nature, red wolves live for about 4-7 years, as they often become the object of hunting for large and strong predators - an alligator, a lynx or other types of wolves. In zoos, red wolves lived up to 12-14 years.

INTERESTING FACTS!

Do you know that:

The lair for a she-wolf with offspring is most often underground and reaches up to 9 meters in length.

The eyes of the cubs open after nine days and have an unusual blue tint, but they quickly fade.

The cubs' legs grow faster than their bodies. From the age of three months, their parents teach them to hunt, and at the age of one and a half years, the wolf stops growing. Sexual maturity in males occurs at three years, and in females earlier - at two.

The red wolf has a good appetite - at one time he eats about 8 kg of meat and this is enough for several days.

Red wolves develop speed during hunting about 40 km/h; for comparison, the gray wolf moves faster - up to 56 km / h. A wolf jumps 4.8 m.

A study of fossils dating back 750,000 years has given the hypothesis that the red wolf is a descendant of the primitive North American wolf, living in these parts before the gray wolf and the coyote.

Red predators in their natural setting avoid contact with humans. But history does not know cases of attacks on humans.

As long as the offspring remain in the flock, they should not breed. Wolves communicate with the help of howling, certain movements and touches, smells. They rarely mark their territory with scent.

One pack of red wolves needs about a hectare for a normal life and food. Red wolves roam, look for good places for hunting and do not stay in one place for more than 10 days.

In the cold season, red wolves cover the soles of their paws and their nose with a fluffy tail - the warm air of breath collects in the long hair of the tail and warms it.

Red wolves are an important link in the ecosystem, as they exterminate, control the number of rodents, and the latter cause damage

Farming is more than wolves.

On Gorna Island, about 8 miles from the Mississippi River, there is a natural nursery - a place where captive breeding of red wolves is under human protection to restore the population in wildlife.

DISTRIBUTION AREAS, POPULATION,

The red wolf was an inhabitant of the southeastern regions of North America - these are the territories of the states of Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana. Uncontrolled shooting to protect livestock, the narrowing of territories controlled by wolves, the emergence of hybrids from mating with coyotes, led to the virtual extinction of the species.

Since 1967, the species of red wolves has been declared endangered (Endangered).

In 1980, 14 red wolves were taken under protection by the US Conservation Organization and they began to breed in the nursery. In 1988, this species began to be returned to the wild. A successful attempt was made in the Great Smoky Mountains - a reserve in the mountains of North Carolina. The population there has successfully increased to a hundred individuals.

In zoos and nurseries around the world, connoisseurs are pleased with about 270 wolves.

RELATED SPECIES OF THE RED WOLF

In nature, there were three subspecies of red wolves:

Canis rufus floridanus, registered as an extinct subspecies in 1930, Canis rufus rufus suffered the same fate in 1970, and Canis rufus gregoryi ceased to exist in 1980.