Status
Endangered
Habitat
Afroalpine grassland and heath, above 3,000 m
Range
Africa
Group
Wolves
Africa's rarest carnivore, and a canid that hunts alone.
It lives socially but forages solo, specialising almost entirely on Afroalpine rodents. That narrow niche is exactly what makes it fragile: the habitat exists only above 3,000 metres, in a handful of Ethiopian massifs.
The principal threat is not hunting but disease — rabies and canine distemper carried by domestic dogs. Vaccination campaigns aimed at village dogs are, functionally, the conservation strategy.
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Afroalpine
Bale Mountains, 3,900 m, hunting alone.
