Argentina to return two rare maned wolves to the wild

By Lucila Sigal

BUENOS AIRES, June 24 (Reuters) - Conservationists will return two maned wolves, rescued ‌after the death of their mother, to ‌the wild next month in Argentina, where the long-legged wild ​canine is endangered.

The conservation nonprofit Temaiken Foundation said it received the male-female siblings named Sun and Moon in September and will release them in ‌July in the ⁠Ibera National Park, where they were born, in northern Corrientes Province.

The maned wolf ⁠is often described as looking like a fox on stilts with thin, long legs. But the ​animal is ​technically neither a wolf ​nor fox. It has ‌large ears, reddish hair and a furry white tail.

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Paula González, the Temaikén Foundation's conservation director, said local people have associated the maned wolf with legends due to its distinctive pitiful howl, ‌including that of the "lobizón," a ​man-wolf hybrid that roams at ​night.

"This also makes ​it a risk factor in many ‌places where that belief is ​deeply rooted ​and where people want to kill it," she said.

Scientists have equipped the animals with satellite ​collars so ‌they can be tracked after their release.

(Reporting ​by Lucila Sigal; Writing by Leila Miller; ​Editing by Cynthia Osterman)