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Living with wolves, resolving conflicts

Conservation focus:

Ethiopian wolf

Scientific name:

Canis simensis

IUCN status:

EDGE status:

EN (endangered)

Score 1.0, Rank 421 / 585 mammals

Threatened evolutionary history:

2 million years

Scientific classification:

Mammals, Carnivora, Canidae

Living with wolves, resolving conflicts

Why support?

This is a follow-up project to EWCP's in-situ conservation of the Ethiopian wolf, a charismatic endemic of the unique, high-altitude Afroalpine ecosystem. Living in matrilinear packs above 3500 m above sea level, this unusual canid solitarily stalks burrowing rodent prey. With only about 500 individuals in 6 widely scattered populations, it would long have been lost were it not for the exemplary conservation efforts of the EWCP, which we have been supporting since 2005. However, whilst EWCP created high levels of awareness across local communities, the growing human population encroaching on the wolves’ habitat will increase human-wildlife conflicts. This calls for preventive action involving the local communities so that awareness leads to meaningful reductions in conflict-prone behaviour. "Living with wolves" addresses this increasing challenge.

Population trend

Stable

Conservation attention

High

Range

Ecological role

Apex predator in the Afroalpine environment; key regulator of endemic rodent populations

Threats

Spread of deadly epizootics through domestic dogs; encroachment of agricultural substance farmland; reduction and fragmentation of suitable habitat (60% already converted to agriculture); proliferation of livestock grazing; reducing the food availability for diurnal rodents (the wolves’ primary prey species); direct persecution and human-wildlife conflicts with local communities; traffic increase.

Grant

First awarded:

$ 8,000

8 November 2024

Score 1.0, Rank 421 / 585 mammals

Grant focus

Prevention of human-wildlife conflict through community education and engagement

Programme owner

EWCP, WildCRU, University of Oxford, UK

Programme contact

Prof. Claudio Sillero

Project location

Ethiopia

Dinsho park, Robe, Ethiopia

Addressing the need: Project goals

Identify threats to Ethiopian wolves, learn and integrate new approaches, and engage our partners to affect behavioural change on the local communities and visitors.

In 2024 we decided to support "Living with Wolves", a new EWCP activity project which aims to ‘foster coexistence through behavioural change’ – working to prevent issues with direct impacts on Ethiopian wolf survival.
The EWCP has implemented environmental education at local schools and communities near wolf ranges for over 25 years. While these activities created high levels of awareness across communities, awareness did not necessary result in meaningful changes in specific behaviours leading to human-wildlife conflict.

For this reason, EWCP is shifting to fostering coexistence through promoting behavioural change. The Living with Wolves project aims to minimise impact of threats that affect the wolves’ welfare, directly though mortality or indirectly through disturbance and stress. These threats are emerging or increasing as the lives of people and wolves become more closely linked.

Conservation actions

Our support will help the EWCP team to identify these threats, learn and integrate new approaches, and engage our partners to affect behavioural change on the local communities and visitors. If we can reduce these sources of disturbances, the wolves will live longer and better lives.

Specifically, the funds will help
- expand EWCP Wolf Ambassadors initiative to further communities across the Bale Mountains
- support the ongoing field activities of EWCP Wolf Monitors in Bale – first line of defence in the early detection of disease, and the identification of disturbances and other human-wolf conflicts
- maintain community outreach campaigns orchestrated through the EWCP Community Leader and Veterinary Teams
- maintain competitive salaries to support field teams in the context of ongoing conflict and political unrest across Ethiopia.

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