Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)

[Dark Jaguar]

There was a live of one of the biologist from Onçafari telling about part of their work results at the 2 main areas they're working at, the Fazenda Caiman - Pantanal (with jaguars) and at Pousada Trijunção - Cerrado (with maned wolves).

@Balam shared the jaguar's part which was when I was aware about this video to collect Maned Woves datas so I am gonna be sharing the Maned Wolves part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQgD7RlXol4


The live brought a few amazing infos about the Maned Wolves species and its part of the long awaited result of Onçafari's studies on Maned Wolves at Pousada Trijunção (east Cerrado) so its now here.

Some of these infos we already got here but there are some really cool ones that is very worth posting.

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Diet.

Being Omnivores animals Maned Wolves diet is very varied. There's a recent predation registered at Pousada Trijunção of Maned Wolf predation on Armadillo, they also predate on Nests in search for eggs. They eat just about anything from fruits, insects, small to medium sized vertebrates and with the Lobeira fruit (the green fruit bellow) which is typical from the Cerrado that is available the whole year its one of the Maned Wolves main diets. The Bacupari fruit during its season Maned Wolves feeds alot on them as well and the overall fruits makes around 60% of their total diet. Maned Wolves are also great seed dispersers so they also got that ecological function.

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Predation

After spotting a prey the Maned Wolf gets ready to jump straight at it with its front paws ready in order to grab its prey and immobilize it.

Here bellow we can see an amazing rare sight of nature.

A very well known female Maned Wolf from this thread, Nhorinhá female one of the monitored individuals by Onçafari from Pousada Trijunção on attempt to predate on Brazilian guinea pigs (Cavia aperea). As the biologist explains in the video note the Brazilian guinea pigs group scattering running for their lives towards the cameraman.

VIDEO

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Another amazing rare register which is Probably one of the first ones in literature, in that includes another well known Wolf, its my boy Diadorim.

Here bellow we can see Diadorim destroying an aereal termite mound because its a nest of Peach-Fronted Parakeet (Eupsittula aurea) and he managed to eat the cubs of Peach-Fronted Parakeet on that register as the biologist enphatized as a super cool behavior of Maned Wolves on how impressive it is their capacity of having such varied diet and behavior.

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Maned Wolves and Birds of Prey relation.

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There's also super cool relations among Maned Wolves with the Birds of Prey and one of the most known is with the Maned Wolf and the Aplomado Falcon (Falco femoralis) which is said that the Aplomado Falcons follow the Maned Wolf while they're searching for food and during the predation moment if the Maned Wolf fails and its prey manages to escape by either running or flying, the Aplomado Falcons shall take advantage to attack the fleeing prey.

The Barn-Owls (Tytonidae) also have the behavior of following the Maned Wolves probably due to the same reason.

Another interesting interaction is with the Short-Eared Owl (Asio flammeus) but in this case it is due to the fact the Short-Eared Owls build their nests on the ground and they go straight at Maned Wolf to lure its attention in order to protect its nest with eggs and cubs.

Here we can see in the darkness of the night in the east Cerrado a couple of Short-Eared Owls attacking and  trying to expel a Maned Wolf away from their nest

VIDEO

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Territory Overlapping

As you can see on the map Onçafari works at in Pousada Trijunção - Cerrado we can see the monitored individuals datas by the collors Orange (Vereda female), Red (Nhorinhá female), Green (Diadorim male) and Yellow (Caliandra female). On the map the sorroundings areas on the bottom is the Parque Nacional Grande Sertão Veredas wich is another very large and well preserved area of brazilian Cerrado and upwards on top there's a few Agriculture areas.

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As we can see there's an overlapping in territory of the 4 individuals and as the biologist said its with more spatial than temporal meaning that throught the time they will overlap but sometimes it doesn't happen at same time its not simultaneously and what is also been said on literature is that they are monogamous making a couple per mating season so on the following season they might not repeat the same mating pair, some couple share their areas at almost 100% of territory sharing observed whereas other couples may share the territory only on the edges/border of their territories so some couples may have almost exclusive areas at Pousada Tijunção.

Mating pairs switching have also been reported at Pousada Trijunção as an example Nhorinhá female who was couple of Diadorim male who's now with Vereda female and Nhorinhá is interacting with another male non monitored.

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The Cubs

As I once posted here a while ago the Maned Wolves when they're cubs their fur coloration is completely dark with the exeption of the tip of the tail which is white and as a cub it even resembles a domestic dog with the changes starting at 3 months old with the coloration starting to change as well as the whole Maned Wolf morphology taking over on the growth of the cub as their ears getting enlongated and other body parts resembling more of an adult maned wolf.

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Litters

The biologist Valkiria found a litter of 5 cubs which is very rare in the wild, in captivity there have been litter of 7 cubs but in the wild 5 cubs is a bit rare.

Rare litter of 5 wild Maned Wolf cubs.

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Burrows

All Maned Wolves burrows found on the field were on areas of tall grasses very well hidden in tunnels underneath the grasses in very humid places with shadow and maned wolves from time to time they take the cubs to another burrow elsewhere just like jaguars do in order to disguise the scent because if staying on the same place for too long the smell shall accumulate and it might lure a possible predator so they'll switch places from time to time.

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Caliandra female's sad story and the rescue of her 5 cubs

Caliandra female unfortunately died and the sad case I have already posted here a while ago when it occured, its post #51 but I am gonna summarize it as the biologist mentioned the whereabouts of her cubs that have been rescued from the burrow by Onçafari with the permission of CENAP.

Caliandra female had 5 cubs and when they were still less than 1 month Caliandra was found dead in an agriculture area and the team managed to collect her body and necropsy was done but they couldn't find out what happened to the animal as there was no marks of fracture, no marks of gun shot and her death remains a mistery.

The 5 cubs of Caliandra was still in the burrow with a male Maned Wolf nearby but as the team knew the male couldn't handle taking care of the cubs all by himself specially cause the cubs were on an age when they relied only on breastfeeding so after the permission of CENAP the team of Onçafari rescued the 5 cubs.

The 5 cubs of Caliandra rescued.

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The cubs were taken to the zoo of Brasília where they were well taken care of and nowadays 2 of them are with Onçafari on a Rewild project to reintroduce them back to the wild.


This one bellow is one of Caliandra's cubs who is now almost 1 year old. Its a male named Guaraticum, he is already big and strong at the Onçafari's rewild project getting ready to get to the wild.


Guaraticum male

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This one bellow is Mangaba female who is also being kept in the enclosure on the process of Rewild to be reintroduced to the wild.


Mangaba female

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The team is making sure to avoid any human contact with these 2 animals in order for them not create a bond with humans so they can be completely wild.

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Guaraticum and Mangaba interaction with a Wild male Maned Wolf

A recent footage have been captured as a wild male maned wolf approaches the fence of the enclosure where the siblings Guaraticum and Mangaba are in and both reacted aggressively trying to protect their area and trying to expel the wild male away from the enclosure.

VIDEO

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This is a good sign and shows both are adapting well to be soon reintroduced to the wild. Reply