By Lucila Sigal
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine conservationists have returned a rare and unusual-looking animal, a maned wolf, to the wild around Buenos Aires, with its long black legs and red fur making the creature look like a fox on stilts or perhaps wearing knee-high boots.
The endangered species, whose natural habitat is generally located in the hot northeast of the country, has slowly migrated south, which experts say is linked to land deforestation for agriculture, hunting, global warming and more extreme weather conditions.
“This (migration) is a phenomenon that is occurring with many species of large vertebrates,” said Marcela Orozco, PhD in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and researcher at the national science institute CONICET.
“It is closely associated with climate change, deforestation, environmental degradation and the indiscriminate use of natural resources, which causes species to begin to modify their geographic distribution.”
The Temaikén Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wild species, received the male maned wolf in December, after he was found wandering lost in Olavarría, a city in the province of Buenos Aires.
After carrying out health examinations and tests with camera traps to ensure that it would survive in the wild, the maned wolf was released this Thursday in the Paraná River delta region, where others of the species have already been sighted.
To continue monitoring it after its launch, experts from Temaikén fitted it with a satellite collar and installed more camera traps in the area.
“It is an animal that we want to be fully reinserted into the wild,” said Guillermo Delfino, head of the threatened species program at the Temaikén Foundation.
“We use different devices, such as camera traps, where we can see and record absolutely all the behaviors he exhibits during the day and at night.”
Despite having an appearance that may seem threatening, the maned wolf is an elusive animal with a varied diet that ranges from rodents, amphibians and birds to eggs and plants.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; editing by Adam Jourdan and Sandra Maler)
