Ethiopian Wolf in Bale Mountains NP, 15/10/14

Canis simensis

A series of shots showing a wolf hunting for burrowing rodents, and eventually getting one (though it seemed to take it by surprise, so we suspect it wasn’t the animal it was originally pursuing!). The wolf hunted by placing its front paws in one exit of the burrow then intently watching the other exit(s) for the inhabitant making its getaway. When it was getting close to catching something it started tail-wagging furiously, exactly like an over-excited terrier!

You do get some fantastic shots M, how close to the wolf were you it looks damn near.?

Thanks! I borrowed a slightly-posher-than-usual lens for this trip, which helped! This photo is uncropped (as are most of the wolf photos) and the animal was only a matter of yards (maybe 10-20m? I'm rubbish at estimating distances!) from the vehicle - clearly aware of us but almost entirely unconcerned. Most of the wolves we saw were much further off and were binos (or ideally scope) jobs, so once I had these photos in the bag I contented myself just to watch the more distant ones.

To give an idea of how distant most of the others were, there's a photo I took of the first wolf attached to post #12 on this thread: http://www.zoochat.com/1001/ethiopian-wolf-bale-mountains-np-15-a-388652/ (the main photo on that link is the same animal as above, of course!)