Researchers from the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme (EWCP) weighing a sedated female Ethiopian wolf. The EWCP is doing crucial work to save the Ethiopian wolf from extinction.
Ethiopian wolves are the world’s rarest canid and Africa’s most endangered carnivore. Today just over 400 survive in a handful of scattered populations in the Ethiopian highlands.
Continued human encroachment brings the wolves into daily contact with domestic dogs which transmit rabies and other diseases. Disease outbreaks ravage the wolf population every few years and are one of the gravest threats to their survival.
In a new initiative, the EWCP administered an oral rabies vaccine to a pilot pack of wolves in the Web Valley. This female wolf was trapped as part of this scheme. She was sedated for no more than 10 minutes before being released and rejoining the pack.