Wolves are controversial figures worldwide and much effort has focused on how to conserve them while addressing public concerns. With its solitary habits and fruit-eating diet, the endangered maned wolf roams the South American grasslands and swamps, playing a vital part in maintaining biodiversity hotspots. Compared to the grey wolf, little is known about its relationship with local people and the environment and the reasons for its decline, making research about this unique species an urgent concern.

Ecology and Conservation of the Maned Wolf: Multidisciplinary Perspectives gathers the work of leading researchers from diverse disciplines and countries, covering up-to-date research on the biology, ecology, and conservation of the maned wolf. It presents innovative insights that can benefit conservation strategies and offers perspectives for the future of the species. The book is divided into three parts. Part I explains the general issues concerning the maned wolf: population viability, the relationship between maned wolves and people, and the management of captive maned wolves. It also reviews current aspects of species biology, including conservation genetics, feeding ecology, social structure and reproduction, and conservation medicine.

Part II contains case studies that present knowledge gathered from conservation programs and field research in all countries where the species is currently found--Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Part III offers perspectives from diverse fields of research, exploring the challenges and opportunities connecting maned wolf conservation efforts with those of its habitat and of other endangered species. This includes education and communication tools, the application of human dimensions research to maned wolf conservation, ethnoconservation perspectives, and the ecological and socioeconomic challenges to the conservation of the cerrado habitat.

Adriana Consorte-McCrea, Ph.D., began her research career studying the captive breeding of maned wolves through an apprenticeship in São Paulo Zoo in 1986. She has contributed to environmental education programs for the education departments of Wildwood Trust, the Natural History Museum-Tring, and Zoological Society of London Whipsnade Zoo. Adriana currently lectures at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK, where she founded and chairs the interdisciplinary Wildlife and People Initiative (part of CCCU's Ecology Research Group), promoting discussion and research about relationships between wildlife and society, in the context of biodiversity conservation. Her main interest areas are attitudes toward wild carnivores and maned wolf conservation. She is a member of the Reintroduction Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission.

Eliana Ferraz Santos, Ph.D., is a native of Campinas (SP, Brazil), where she has worked for many years in biology and management of wild animals in Campinas Zoo. She has coordinated the Jequitibás Woods Zoo of Campinas since 2004, where she also serves as a zoologist. She has been the director of the Associação Mata Ciliar at the Canine Department of Jundiaí, and the founder and coordinator of the Project Echoes of the Woods (voluntary environmental education project) in Jequitibás Woods since 1997. Eliana has experience in zoology, working mainly in the areas of animal behavior, ecology of wild animals, captive animal management, and environmental enrichment. She has been an effective partner at the Paulista Society of Zoos since 1998, where she has directed the biology department since 2002.