Rescued Maned Wolf saying hi (Chrysocyon brachyurus)

Not a pet! This animal was rescued when he was just an orphaned pup, and became very accustomed to people; in fact, as you can see in the video, it loves the company of people... unfortunately, that means it can never be released back into the wild. If an animal in such a situation were to be released, there are a few possible outcomes, and none of them are good... an animal in these conditions does not know how to find food on its own, and it’s used to humans being the ones who provide food, so if released such animal would seek people and... 1) It would get killed by someone who would see it as a threat, even though Maned Wolves pose NO threat to humans if left alone; 2) It would get caught by someone who would want it as a pet and it would spend the rest of its life in a house; 3) It would live as a stray dog, eating garbage and/or getting fed by people who would not feed it properly, getting (and possibly spreading) diseases, and/or possibly getting attacked by a dog or hit by a car; 4) It would stay away from people but die from starvation or some disease (either from not eating properly, as it doesn’t know how to get food, or from being in contact with animals who are immune to such things - and possibly infecting wildlife with something that it brought from life in captivity, but the animal itself is used to. So yeah... things aren’t as simple as you all think... it’s a real shame that this animal has to spend the rest of his life in captivity, but unfortunately, it’s his reality. At least he has a decent space to live in and is well-cared for. The Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), as the name suggests, has a mane on the back of its neck, but unlike its name suggests, it’s actually not a wolf. It’s called a wolf because of its size (about 90cm/3ft at shoulder height); some people like to refer to it as a “fox on stilts“, but although it does resemble a fox, it’s not a fox either. In fact, the maned wolf is the sole extant member of the Chrysocyon genus, meaning that it has no actual close relatives. Its closest living relative is the Bush Dog (Speothos venaticus), a short-legged canid with a round head that looks more like a bear than a maned wolf. The scientific name Chrysocyon brachyurus is of Greek origin, meaning short-tailed golden dog. Unlike true wolves, maned wolves do not howl, they roar-bark. Although they are solitary animals, they do that to communicate with other maned wolves, be it with their pups, a partner, or to mark their territory. Another difference between true wolves and maned wolves is that true wolves are carnivores, whereas maned wolves are omnivores, which means that they eat a little bit of everything (mammals, birds, reptiles, eggs, insects), but their diet is mostly plant-based. They eat many different fruits that they can find in their environment, but since they’re not available year-round, depending on the time of year, their diet might become a bit more animal-based. Their favorite food though IS available year-round, making it the very base of they’re diet; so much so that it was named after it: the wolf apple. The maned wolf is the largest canid in South America and can be found in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. It used to occur in Uruguay as well, but it hasn’t been seen there since 1990. Most of its range is in Brazil, especially in the Cerrado, the Brazilian Savannah. In fact, the maned wolf occurs in 90% of the Cerrado, which shows how connected the species and the biome are. The maned wolf was last assessed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2015 and classified as Near Threatened, with an estimated 17,000 mature individuals left in the wild, but it said that “if deforestation reaches the maximum estimated rate of loss (2% per year), then simulation suggests a national population reduction of 56% at the end of 100 years“, not to mention that is also subject to other threats, such as road kills and diseases from domestic dogs. They concluded it with “The species’ situation is considered to be of major concern due to the various threats acting throughout its entire range and should be regularly re-evaluated.“