THE RACE TO SAVE A WOLF

The Ethiopian wolf is the world’s rarest canid, pushed to the edge by disease and habitat loss. Yet ongoing vaccination is giving the species a second chance.

- MARIELLE VAN UITERT

Wake up, wake up! We have a new wolf!” It’s June 2021 and it’s past midnight on the high plateau of West Morebowa, in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains.

Muktar Abute, vet team leader for the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Project (EWCP), grabs his vaccination kit, while the rest of us pull on boots and head torches.

Thunder rolls in the distance as we pick our way down the steep mountain path. We’re at an altitude of almost 4,000m and it’s raining, but the prospect of finding a wolf distracts me from the icy chill.

I’ve made the journey to these remote slopes to document the work of the EWCP, an organisation dedicated to saving the species from extinction. We soon find our quarry, its leg caught in a rubber-edged hold trap. Programme manager Edriss Ebu, joined by field director Eric Bedin, throws a red blanket over the struggling animal to calm it down. The wolf is anaesthetised, released from the trap and moved a few metres away.

Trying to capture all the action on camera is tricky: the rain is still coming down, it’s almost pitch darkness and I am burdened by a large and ungainly poncho. The team from EWCP works fast and in almost complete silence. Keeping a close eye on the wolf ’s wellbeing, Muktar performs a brief physical exam, measuring and weighing the animal and examining its teeth, while Eric records the corresponding data. He then checks the identification tag on the wolf ’s ear and shaves a small patch of its leg to take a blood sample.