Last Week's Who Am I?: Canine Edition Is...

I kept you guessing a few extra days - oops! But better late than never, here's the answer to last week's Who Am I?

Photo Credit: Anup Shah/ Corbis (via Flickr)

Photo Credit/ Martin Harvey/www.photoshot.com/ARKive

Photo Credit: Michel Gunther/Biosphoto/ ARKive

This handsome, leggy canine is the Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis) - "the most threatened canid in the world and the only wolf species to be found in Africa" (ARKive website).

I hinted that this species was chosen in my grandchildren's honor, so if you didn't know, Ethiopia is their birthplace. 

Ethiopian wolves stalk or dig out giant molerats and grass rats. They live in the mountains of Ethiopia, in seven populations. The largest group lives in the Bale Mountains. There are about 500 Ethiopian wolves left; about 250 of them are breeding adults.

The champion of Ethiopian wolf conservation is Dr. Claudio Sillero-Zubiri. He won a Whitley Fund conservation award in 1998 and is responsible for most of what is known about these animals. In 2004 he was instrumental in vaccinating the Ethiopian wolves against a rabies outbreak, very likely saving the species. You can click on his name to learn more about Dr. Sillero's work.

And because they are irresistibly cute, here is a thumbnail link to a BBC video of the pups found on the ARKive website: