BUENOS AIRES - Conservationists will return two maned wolves, rescued after the death of their mother, to the wild next month in Argentina, where the long-legged wild canine is endangered.
The conservation non-profit Temaiken Foundation said it received the male and female siblings named Sun and Moon in September and will release them in July in the Ibera National Park, where they were born, in northern Corrientes province.
The maned wolf is often described as looking like a fox on stilts with thin, long legs. But the animal is technically neither a wolf nor fox. It has large ears, reddish hair and a furry white tail.
Paula González, the conservation director of the Temaikén Foundation, said local people have associated the maned wolf with legends due to its distinctive pitiful howl, including that of the lobizón, a man-wolf hybrid that roams at night.
“This also makes it a risk factor in many places where that belief is deeply rooted and where people want to kill it,” she said.
Scientists have equipped the animals with satellite collars so they can be tracked after their release.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates there are between 17,000 to 23,600 mature maned wolves remain in the wild, mostly in Brazil.
The IUCN classifies the maned wolf as near-threatened overall, but it has been classified as endangered in Argentina.
