An adult pair will occupy and defend the same territory but will seldom spend time with each other except during the breeding season. The young go off on their own at about a year of age. Not much is known about these solitary animals. They're secretive and hard to study in the wild. Fewer than 100 maned wolves are kept in captivity in the United States.
Births are rare, and mothers often abandon or even cannibalize their young.
Keepers would like to know how to improve the species' breeding success. The research center in Eureka, known as the Wolf Sanctuary , is a breeding facility for several species. When Sullivan expressed an interest in studying wolf behavior, he put her in touch with Lindsey. In the fall of 1996, Sullivan began to get acquainted with the Wolf Sanctuary's two pairs of maned wolves. The sanctuary's adult maned wolves act playful or submissive only rarely with each other, Sullivan found, and not at all with other wolves.