A number of factors threaten the survival of this super-rare canid. High altitude Afroalpine grasslands are crucial pastureland for the local people’s livestock, and heathlands provide firewood. Increasing livestock populations may be already exerting unsustainable pressure, degrading the Afroalpine ecosystem in many places and reducing the wolves' prey (rodents). Already, 60% of former Ethiopian wolf habitat (i.e. land above the tree-line) has been converted to agriculture. Human encroachment continues due to high population growth. With the herders come domestic dogs, which are numerous in the Ethiopian mountains. They act as reservoirs for infectious diseases, notably rabies and canine distemper. Moreover, given the very small global population of Ethiopian wolves, inbreeding and hybridisation form an additional threat. A handful of hybrid wolves were recorded in the Web Valley of the Bale Mountains in the 1980-90s, the result of crosses between female wolves and male domestic dogs. Political instability and conflict due to livestock predation can lead to killings of Ethiopian wolves, especially in the northern highlands. As more roads are built and traffic increases steadily, so does the risk of wolves being killed by vehicles.