r/ManedWolf

Maned wolves and bush dogs are extremely interesting animals, both of them have become moderately well known recently and as always that also led to a lot of misinformation about them! After doing two moth posts in a row I decided I had to do something else before doing another, I do hope to do another soon but there’s certainly no shortage of fascinating animals! While maned wolves will be in this post I hope to focus more on bush dogs! First of all, the maned wolf isn’t truly a wolf. It doesn’t belong to the genus Canis (which has dogs, wolves and coyotes) instead it belongs to Chrysocyon. Maned wolves are actually the only living species in Chrysocyon. They are also commonly called fox on stilts, that is also misleading. They are not closely related to foxes.

Maned wolves and bush dogs are the closest living relatives to each other but that doesn’t mean that they are extremely close. Maned wolves and bush dogs split from their last shared ancestor around 3 to 4 million years ago. To help you fully get what that means, that’s roughly the same amount of time it’s been since our ancient ancestor Australopithecus walked the earth. Many species used to sit closer to maned wolves and bush dogs but unfortunately all of the ones in between them have since gone extinct.

Their differences stand out as soon as you look at them. Maned wolves are extraordinary tall usually around three feet tall at the shoulder (maned wolves are the tallest wild canine in the world!), while bush dogs are very short usually one foot tall at the shoulder or even shorter, maned wolves are solitary while bush dogs live in packs of around two to twelve bush dogs, and maned wolves are omnivores commonly eating wolf apples while bush dogs are hypercarnivores that heavily depend on meat.

Now onto some fascinating facts about bush dogs! Bush dogs actually have partially webbed toes! That’s extremely rare in canids! They are incredibly amazing swimmers because of this! Also, they only have 38 teeth, almost all other canids have 42 teeth. And they are one of only three canid species on earth (the African wild dog and Dhole are the other two) to possess a trenchant heel dentition! This means the lower carnassial tooth has a single, blade-like cusp designed to maximize the length and efficiency of their bite. In a shockingly odd twist, they were first found as fossils and assumed to be extinct! Only several years later did people find them alive and well!

I apologize for the fact that this post hasn’t gone very in depth on anything, it’s my second one today and to be honest, I more wanted to clarify the whole related thing. To summarize it, yes they are related but distantly. The only reason they are the closest living relatives to each other is because many other species went extinct. Anyway I hope you enjoyed! As always, sources are IUCN red list, the Canid specialist group, the endangered wolf center, and Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.