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03-15-2020, 03:26 AM( This post was last modified: 03-15-2020, 03:35 AM by Dark Jaguar )
The Maned/Guará Wolf in the Pantanal
Posted in 2015
translated by: Me
Onçafari Project President Mario receives Rogerio from Sou Amigo do Lobo Project ( ''I am friend of the wolf'' in portuguese ). Rogerio is the biggest specialist of maned/guará wolf in Brazil and will talk about this very cool and interesting animal.
Mario: - We've seen alot at least here at Refúgio Ecológico Caiman the maned wolf's presence which is not an animal from the Pantanal.
Rogerio: - Yeah the maned wolf is originally from the cerrado it actually occupies all the central region of south america and when we talk to the eldest people from pantanal they actually had never seen a maned wolf there. so we believe in fact the maned wolf had entered to the drier areas of pantanal and today we've made a study mapping the maned wolf throughout all Brazil and we got around 15% to 20% of the pantanal is suitable to receive the maned wolfs presence and this part of southern pantanal where the Refúgio Ecológico Caiman is located as well as other higher farms in this region and one part between mato grosso do sul and mato grosso are the best areas for the maned wolf to show up and establish themselves here in this biome.
Mario: - Why do you think we have seen the maned wolf more often in the region do you think they had always been to this area or the maned wolf is suffering some pressure from outside that is leading them to move towards this area?
Rogerio: - I think so there might be 2 possibilities to this, either Pantanal start to present more characteristics to the maned wolf in terms of food resources and drier areas along the year to stay more dry for much longer or the negative side which is the whole agricultural expansion and the problems of deforestation in the cerrado are leading maned wolves with no space at the border of pantanal. So that makes the maned wolves enter in the Pantanal which has a better quality than the extensive monocuture areas.
Mario: - Thats very interesting what you said in 4 years of project here I've seen 2 sighting on 2 maned wolves as you can see in the camera trap footages and both times were in the drought but we also saw them in the camera traps in the flooded areas so maybe this pressure is increasing even more that even in the flooded areas of pantanal the maned wolf is trying to adapt here.
Rogério: - Yeah I think these sighting in the flood not only here at Refúgio Ecológico Caiman but also in other farms they corroborate this theory of these more elevaded areas like in this southern section of pantanal became more attractive to the maned wolf so even in the flooded areas they find dry spots where they can find food, walk, hunt.
Mario: - Cool that's very interesting the maned wolf is for sure a very cool animal to see and the rare moments when we see them here at Refúgio Ecológico Caiman it's just nearly as emotional as when the people see jaguars here, seen maned wolf is something very unexpected, rare and so cool to see.
Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)
