Ethiopian Wolf (Canis Simensis)
Bale Mountains NP
The wolves of Bale20.06.2010 09:18
Africa is known and famous for his predators like lions, leopards or hyenas, which can be found in all the books about Africa. The African Wolf however is not known and sidelined compared to his more glamorous fellow predators of the African continent, especially as he cannot be watched comfortably from a safari bus.
Only 500 to 700 of this are left in the wild, living in three seperate populations. The survival of this species is severly endangered. The biggest of these populations is living in the Bale Moutains of Ethiopia, which is a a remote mountain area with peakes towering more than 4300m.
The Bale Mountains National Park covers large parts of the Bale Mts area, but even in the NP nomads tend their goats and horses at every suitable place.
As the Ethiopian wolf is mainly living of small rodents, it is not hunted or poached, but the dogs of the herders pose the biggest threat. They infect the small wolf poulations with dangerous and fatal diseases like rabies. An infection would spread easily among the small population and wipe it out, as it nearly happened some years ago. Vaccination is difficult and expensive!
A small view into the family life of the Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis) and the enviornment of the Bale mountains offer my new pictures.