Post #11

The Maned Wolf

     The maned wolf is found in South America, and is the largest canid of its area, being about three feet high at the shoulder. this means that they have almost no natural enemies. They mostly live in semi-open places, like grasslands and low bushes. 

     Being an omnivore, they mostly eat small to medium rodents, birds and even fish. However a large portion of their diet is vegetables and fruit, 

     Their mating season is roughly from November to April, producing two to six black-furred pups. The pups will be full grown in one year, during which they mostly rely on their parents for food. 

     This mammal is the tallest of the wild canids, their long legs probably an adaption to its habitat of tall grasslands. The maned wolf's fur is reddish brown, sometimes golden-orange on the sides, long black legs, and a distinctive black mane. There is a little bit of white on and tip of the tail and under the chin. 

     The maned wolf has some similar characteristics to the red fox, but belongs to a completely different family. In fact, they are different from any other living canids studied. Some say that the maned wolf is the only animal among the bigger South American canids that made it past the Pleistocene extinction, because fossils have been found from the Holocene and late Pleistocene in Brazil.

    Below is a chart showing that the maned wolf is unrelated to the fox:

    

	Short-eared dog Crab-eating fox Sechuran fox Culpeo fox Pampas fox South American gray fox Darwin's fox Hoary fox
	Maned wolf[18](Fig. 10) Bush dog