Wolves in Ethiopa

The African Conservation Foundation / http://www.africanconservation.org/

With worsening threats, particularly those arising from domestic dogs and the current decline in population, a major conservation operation has become a critical priority for the Ethiopian wolf.

Action is needed now to avoid a further population decline and diminish the chances of these animals becoming extinct.  Without swift intervention and help from the international community, one of the most interesting creatures ever to inhabit the African highlands might soon become the next large mammal to go extinct.  An elegant, long-legged red canid the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), also known as the Abyssinian wolf or Simien fox, is endemic to the Ethiopian afroalpine ecosystem.

A true African wolf, its closest relatives are grey wolves and coyotes.  Ethiopian wolves are found nowhere else but in a handful of scattered mountain pockets.  Fewer than 500 survive and are considered as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. High up in their mountain enclaves the Ethiopian wolves prey upon the abundant Afroalpine rodent communities and live in large family packs with an intricate social organization.

These specialized carnivores, have never been very abundant due to their mountain habitats.  Ethiopian wolves share the Afroalpine moorlands with shepherds and their livestock, and numbers have declined critically in the last few years due to increasing human pressure for high altitude grazing and agriculture, direct persecution, hybridization with domestic dogs, and infectious diseases such as rabies.

The species is probably the rarest canid in the world and is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN (1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species).