Unlike other large canids (such as Wolves, African Hunting Dogs, Dholes) the Maned Wolf does not form packs. It hunts alone, usually between sundown and midnight. It kills its animal prey by biting on the neck or back, and shaking it violently if necessary. Monogamous pairs may defend a shared territory of about 30 square km, though the wolves themselves may seldom meet, outside of mating. The territory is criscrossed by paths that the wolves create as they patrol at night. Several adults may congregate in the presence of a plentiful food source; a fire-cleared patch of grassland, for example, which would leave small vertebrate prey exposed to foraging wolves. Maned Wolves, both male and female, use their urine to communicate, e.g. to mark their hunting paths, or the places where they have buried hunted prey. The urine has a very distinctive smell, which some people liken to hops or cannabis. The responsible substance is very likely a pyrazine, which occurs in both plants. (In the Rotterdam Zoo, this smell once set the police on a hunt for cannabis smokers.)
The Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the largest canid of South America, resembling a dog with reddish fur. It is called lobo-guar� ("Guar� Wolf") in Portuguese, aguara guaz� ("Big Fox") in Guarani, and lobo de crin ("Maned Wolf") in Spanish. Was improperly called Canis jubatus ("Maned Dog") in some 19th publications.
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