Animal · Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay
Maned wolf
Chrysocyon brachyurus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The maned wolf is a tall animal with red fur and black stockings that walks the grasslands of South America on stilt-like legs. Despite its name it is neither a wolf nor a fox, but a species entirely of its own.
Picture credit: Ferrarezi Jr. (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Neil McIntosh (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the maned wolf live?
Home: Tall grasslands and scrubby savanna of central South America.
In the wild it lives in these countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru.
Conservation status from the IUCN: close to being at risk.
The short profile
Fully grown: about 100 cm long, up to 90 cm at the shoulder. It weighs about 23 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
Its long thin legs are not made for speed but for height: they lift its head above the tall grass so it can look and listen for prey. The maned wolf hunts alone at dusk and catches mice, birds and insects with a sudden pounce, yet roughly half of its food is fruit. Its favourite is the wolf apple, a tomato-like fruit of the Brazilian cerrado, and the seeds it leaves behind grow into new bushes. A pair shares a large territory but the two animals usually go their own way, keeping in touch with a deep roaring bark that carries far across the plain. Its urine smells so strongly that zoo visitors often think something has gone wrong. Farms and roads are spreading across its grassland home, so the species counts as near threatened.
Find it on the globe
Maned wolf is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Is the maned wolf a real wolf?
No. It belongs to the dog family, but it is not closely related to wolves or foxes and is the only species in its own group. It also lives quite differently, hunting alone instead of in a pack.
What does a maned wolf eat?
About half of its food is fruit, above all the wolf apple, and the rest is small prey such as mice, birds, reptiles and insects. That mixed menu makes it one of the least meat-eating members of the dog family.
Why does the maned wolf have such long legs?
It lives in grass that can grow taller than a child, so long legs lift its eyes and ears above the stalks. That way it can spot movement and hear a mouse rustling without having to climb anything.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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