The fight to save the maned wolf
Blog
The maned wolf is ‘near threatened’ and without urgent action, these animals are facing a bleak future. Here’s how factory farming is threatening these animals and how we are fighting back to protect Brazil’s iconic species.
The Cerrado region of Brazil is the largest, richest, and possibly most threatened tropical savanna in the world. It is also home to the largest remaining population of maned wolves.
There are only around 17,000 maned wolves left in the world today, classifying them as ‘near threatened’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
A mere 3% of the maned wolf’s natural habitat is protected. The rest has been cleared for agriculture - taken over by agribusinesses growing soy and grain to sustain billions of factory-farmed animals worldwide.
Maned wolves are now forced to live in agricultural areas, where they often face death or injury from farming machinery and vehicles or drown in irrigation ditches while trying to drink.
BBC’s Planet Earth III exposed the grave danger maned wolves face from fires used to clear the Cerrado for farming. The series told a sad story of a mother wolf and her two pups who were all found dead, drowned in a farmer’s irrigation ditch. These ditches are deathtraps as their design makes it impossible for the animals to escape.
As a keystone species, maned wolves are critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems. They keep pest populations under control, and they disperse the seeds of native plants which keeps the grasslands regenerating.
Maned wolves are vital to the conservation of the Cerrado, one of our most threatened savanna biomes in the world, and we must act now to protect them.
Photo: Onçafari / Chiara Bortoloto
World Animal Protection's work to protect maned wolves
Together with our partners, Onçafari, we are working to give maned wolves the protection they deserve. Our two-year monitoring project will support the protection of maned wolves in the south-western region of the state of Bahia and in the Cerrado biome.
We have donated vital equipment, including radio collars, camera traps and a drone. This equipment is essential in showing where and when the animals roam and to enable a faster response from Onçafari in emergencies.
The data gathered over the next two years will help show the devastating consequences of intensive monocrop production to wildlife. The evidence will be critical in convincing Brazil’s government and industry of the threats that maned wolves and other wild animals face. By closely monitoring the maned wolves, we will also learn more about their behaviours, social interactions and sentience.
Support our work to protect maned wolves.
Your generosity will help rescue maned wolves in urgent danger and intensify our campaign against the ruthless expansion of factory farming. Your support will drive lasting change for wildlife and protect Brazil’s fragile ecosystems.
Together, we can ensure a future for the maned wolf and many other species threatened by factory farming.