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Rabies threatens rare wolf
27/11/2003 14:03 - (SA)
Nairobi - The environmental group, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), warned on Thursday that a rabies epidemic is threatening to wipe out a rare Ethiopian wolf, a statement released in Nairobi said.
"A rabies epidemic in parts of southeastern Ethiopia is threatening the survival of the most endangered member of the dog family - the Ethiopian wolf," the statement said.
"At least 30 Ethiopian wolves have died from rabies since the disease broke out in Bale Mountains National Park at the end of September," the statement added.
The park is home to some 300 wolves, more than half of the total population of 500 still left in the Horn of Africa nation.
WWF said that since the first death was reported in September, conservationists have been isolating affected wolves and started a vaccination programme to try to contain the epidemic.
"Conservationists fear that unless more funds are forthcoming to vaccinate the wolves, their population will further dwindle," it said.
WWF's Bale Mountains National Park co-ordinator Ermias Bekele has called for a stop in the recent influx of illegal settlers into the park in order to save the wolves from extinction.
"If we are to save the Ethiopian wolf from extinction, we must find a permanent solution to the recent influx of illegal settlers into the national park," the statement quoted Bekele as saying.
"We have also to ensure that the settlers' dogs do not breed with the wolves, eroding the unique genetic make-up even further," Bekele added.
In the last rabies epidemic in Ethiopia in 1991 and 1992, more than two-thirds of the park's wolves were wiped out.
- AFP
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