The Ethiopian wolf, Canis simensis, is the most endangered canid (biological family including wolves and dogs) in the world, according to the Wildlife Conservation Network. This wily wolf looks much like a fox. Its home is the mountains of Ethopia, but farm land is encroaching on and fragmenting its habitat. Other human factors reducing the species' viability include overgrazing, persecution, warfare and road kills. Rabies and distemper, fatal illnesses contracted from invading dogs, have driven the Ethopian fox to the point of extinction. As populations get smaller, hybridization with dogs becomes a greater threat; following hybridization, a population may be affected by a reduction in fitness (in either fertility or viability) known as outbreeding depression.
The Ethiopian wolf is a very localized endemic species and is confined to five isolated pockets of afroalpine grasslands and heathlands in Ethiopia.
Other language names: Amharic: ky, kebero. Orominiac: jedalla farda, arouyaé.
The global population of the Ethiopian wolf is estimated at 400 adults. Probably less than 250 are breeders. The current total estimate indicates a decline of at lest 25% in the last three years, distributed in 5-7 populations of less than 100 breeders each.
The IUCN considers Canis simensis as "Critically endangered".