World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/tasmanian-devil): Tasmanian Devil — wildlife guide.

## Why is the Tasmanian devil Endangered?
The Tasmanian devil was up-listed from Vulnerable to Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2008 after Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) triggered population collapses across much of the island. DFTD is one of only a small number of known transmissible cancers in nature — the tumour cells themselves are the infectious agent, spreading when devils bite each other during social interactions and mating. The disease causes large, grotesque tumours to form around the face and neck, eventually preventing the animal from eating, and is fatal in virtually all cases within months of visible symptoms appearing. DFT1, the original strain, was first observed in northeast Tasmania in 1996 and has spread across the majority of the island. A second, independent strain — DFT2 — was discovered in the southeast in 2014, underscoring how vulnerable the species remains. The disease has reduced the overall wild population by approximately 80% since the mid-1990s. Secondary threats include vehicle strikes, persecution by farmers historically concerned about livestock, and habitat modification. Scientists have observed limited natural resistance to DFTD in some populations, sparking cautious optimism, and ongoing vaccine and immunotherapy trials aim to enhance immune response in wild and captive animals.

## How do Tasmanian devils reproduce?
Tasmanian devils reach sexual maturity in their second year and typically breed between February and June, with peak activity in March. Mating is a fierce affair: males compete aggressively for females, and a successful male will guard his mate for days to ensure paternity. After a gestation of just 21 days — typical of marsupials — a female gives birth to 20–30 tiny joeys, each weighing barely 0.18–0.24 grams, roughly the size of a grain of rice. The newborns must make an unaided crawl from the birth canal to the mother's backward-opening pouch, where only four teats await. Only the first four joeys to latch on survive; the rest perish. This brutal reproductive bottleneck means that successful females raise at most four offspring per breeding season. The young remain in the pouch for approximately 100 days, after which they are too large to be contained and instead cling to the mother's back or are left in a den while she forages. Joeys become independent at around nine months of age. Wild devils typically live 5–6 years — a short window further compressed by DFTD, which disproportionately kills adults in their reproductive prime, disrupting population recovery.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/tasmanian-devil): Tasmanian Devil — wildlife guide.

## What role do Tasmanian devils play in their ecosystem?
Tasmanian devils are apex scavengers and opportunistic predators whose ecological role extends far beyond their fearsome reputation. As consummate carrion cleaners — capable of devouring an entire carcass including bones, fur, and organs — they dramatically reduce the build-up of decomposing material that could otherwise harbour disease and attract invasive species such as feral cats and foxes. Studies conducted after localised DFTD-driven devil population declines found increases in feral cat activity, which in turn drove declines in small mammals and ground-nesting birds, illustrating the cascade effects that follow devil loss. Devils also prey on a wide variety of live species: small wallabies, wombats, possums, reptiles, birds, fish, and insects, contributing to the regulation of prey populations. Their scats distribute seeds and nutrients across the landscape. In 2020, 26 disease-free Tasmanian devils were reintroduced to a large fenced sanctuary in the Barrington Tops region of New South Wales — the first time the species has lived on the mainland in thousands of years — partly to restore a functional ecological role. Early results from that programme have shown devils helping to suppress overabundant kangaroo and wallaby numbers, demonstrating their capacity to restore ecosystem balance when given the chance.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently run field projects for the Tasmanian devil — its range is restricted to Tasmania, Australia, which lies outside WARN's current partner network. This guide is offered as free educational content because informed global awareness is one of the most powerful tools in wildlife conservation. Understanding what drives a species to the brink — whether a transmissible cancer, habitat loss, or human conflict — helps build the public will that ultimately funds and sustains protection efforts everywhere.

## Donation hook
Every animal that disappears leaves a gap in the ecosystems that sustain us all. While WARN's current conservation partners operate in its partner-network countries, the funds raised through our appeals support the kind of on-the-ground habitat and wildlife protection that gives threatened species — wherever they live — a fighting chance. If the plight of the Tasmanian devil moves you, consider supporting WARN's habitat work.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/tasmanian-devil): Tasmanian Devil — wildlife guide.

## Is the Tasmanian devil really dangerous to humans?
Tasmanian devils are not considered dangerous to humans under normal circumstances. They are shy and will retreat rather than confront people if given the chance. Their powerful bite is used for crushing bones and during intraspecies competition, not for attacking humans. That said, a cornered or injured devil can bite defensively and should never be handled without expert training.

## Can Devil Facial Tumour Disease spread to other animals or humans?
No. DFTD is unique to Tasmanian devils and cannot be transmitted to other species, including humans. It spreads exclusively between devils through direct contact — specifically biting, which occurs during mating and feeding competitions. The tumour cells that transfer between individuals are genetically distinct from the host's own cells, making DFTD one of the rarest types of cancer known to science.

## How many Tasmanian devils are left in the wild?
As of the most recent IUCN assessment (2020), fewer than 25,000 mature Tasmanian devils are estimated to remain in the wild in Tasmania. This represents a reduction of approximately 80% from population levels recorded before Devil Facial Tumour Disease emerged in the mid-1990s. Numbers vary significantly by region, with some local populations having been almost entirely wiped out.

## Are there Tasmanian devils on mainland Australia?
Tasmanian devils went extinct on mainland Australia approximately 3,000 years ago, likely due to a combination of factors including the arrival of dingoes, climate shifts, and changes in human land use. In 2020, a rewilding programme reintroduced 26 disease-free individuals to a large fenced sanctuary in New South Wales — the first time the species has lived wild on the mainland in millennia, serving as both an insurance population and an experiment in ecological restoration.

## What is being done to save the Tasmanian devil?
The Australian and Tasmanian governments coordinate a national conservation programme involving captive breeding, disease surveillance, insurance populations, and scientific research. Immunotherapy and vaccine trials are actively exploring ways to stimulate an immune response against DFTD. Some wild populations have also shown signs of partial natural resistance, suggesting that evolution may be playing a slow but measurable role in the species' fight for survival.

## What does a Tasmanian devil eat?
Tasmanian devils are opportunistic carnivores and scavengers. They eat a wide range of prey including wallabies, wombats, rabbits, possums, reptiles, birds, fish, insects, and carrion. Their most distinctive feeding trait is their ability to consume prey entirely — bones, fur, and all — leaving virtually no waste. This thorough consumption is ecologically valuable, as it reduces disease reservoirs and limits food sources for invasive species in the environment.

## Where do tasmanian devils live?
Tasmanian Devils live in Forests, heathlands, farmland fringes — Tasmania only. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is an Endangered carnivorous marsupial found only in Tasmania, Australia, whose wild population has plummeted by around 80% since the 1990s due to a transmissible facial cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD).


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/tasmanian-devil): Tasmanian Devil — wildlife guide.

## How long do tasmanian devils live?
Tasmanian Devils typically live 5–6 years in the wild; up to 8 in captivity. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is an Endangered carnivorous marsupial found only in Tasmania, Australia, whose wild population has plummeted by around 80% since the 1990s due to a transmissible facial cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). Wild and captive figures can differ; use the sources listed on the guide for the underlying studies.

## How big is a tasmanian devil?
A Tasmanian Devil is about 5–6 years in the wild; up to 8 in captivity. The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is an Endangered carnivorous marsupial found only in Tasmania, Australia, whose wild population has plummeted by around 80% since the 1990s due to a transmissible facial cancer called Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD).


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wallaby): Wallaby — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
Wallabies are small-to-medium marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, closely related to kangaroos, with more than 30 species ranging from common and widespread to Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered depending on the species.

## Introduction
Wallabies are medium-to-small marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae — the same family as kangaroos — and they are among the most recognisable symbols of Australian wildlife. Spread across more than 30 species in genera including Notamacropus, Petrogale, Wallabia, Thylogale, and Onychogalea, wallabies occupy an extraordinary range of habitats, from dense rainforest to sun-scorched rocky escarpments and coastal scrubland. Native to Australia and New Guinea, they have also been introduced to New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Hawaii. Most species are thriving, yet some — such as the Parma wallaby and several rock-wallaby species — face serious pressure from habitat clearance and introduced predators. Understanding wallabies matters: these animals are ecological keystones, shaping vegetation through grazing and serving as prey for a web of native predators and scavengers.

## Takeaway
Wallabies are not a single genetic group but a collective term for more than 30 medium-to-small macropod species across multiple genera.

## Takeaway
Most common species such as the agile wallaby and red-necked wallaby are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, but several rock-wallabies and hare-wallabies are Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered.

## Takeaway
After a gestation of only 25–30 days, joeys are born the size of a jellybean and spend around nine months developing inside the mother's pouch.

## Takeaway
Female wallabies can suspend a pregnancy mid-development — a process called embryonic diapause — until conditions are right to continue.

## Takeaway
Introduced predators, especially red foxes and feral cats, are the leading conservation threat for vulnerable wallaby species across Australia.

## Takeaway
At slow speeds wallabies use 'pentapedal locomotion', walking on all four limbs plus the tail — generating more forward force with the tail than with any other limb.

## What is a wallaby?
The word 'wallaby' does not describe a single species but rather a loose grouping of small-to-medium macropods that are typically smaller than kangaroos. Wallabies belong to the family Macropodidae — meaning 'big foot' in Greek — and are most closely related to kangaroos, wallaroos, and tree-kangaroos. They sit within several genera: Notamacropus covers the brush wallabies such as the agile wallaby and red-necked wallaby; Petrogale encompasses the rock-wallabies; Wallabia contains the distinctive swamp wallaby; and Lagorchestes, Onychogalea, and Thylogale cover hare-wallabies, nail-tail wallabies, and pademelons respectively. Like all marsupials, wallabies give birth to highly undeveloped young and complete development inside a pouch. Their defining physical traits include powerful elongated hind legs, a strong muscular tail that serves both as a counterbalance during hopping and as a fifth limb during slow locomotion, and compact forelimbs used for feeding and grooming. Adult body weights range from around 4–5 kg in smaller wallaby species such as the tammar wallaby up to 26 kg in a large male red-necked wallaby — a substantial variation that reflects the enormous diversity within the group.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wallaby): Wallaby — wildlife guide.

## Where do wallabies live?
Wallabies are native to Australia and the island of New Guinea, with naturalised populations established in New Zealand's South Island, parts of the United Kingdom, and some Pacific island groups. Within Australia they occupy almost every terrestrial biome. Swamp wallabies favour damp forests and wetland margins; agile wallabies thrive in the tropical savanna woodlands of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory; rock-wallabies cling to cliff faces, boulder piles, and rocky gorges across arid and semi-arid zones; while red-necked wallabies inhabit open eucalyptus forest and scrubland from southern Queensland down through New South Wales and into Tasmania. In general, wallabies prefer areas with cover — dense shrubs, tall grasses, or rocky outcrops — that provide shelter from predators and shade from heat. They are less commonly found on the open treeless plains of central Australia, which are better suited to the larger, faster kangaroos. Wallabies are predominantly crepuscular, resting in shade or dense vegetation during the hottest part of the day and emerging to feed at dawn and dusk.

## How do wallabies reproduce?
Wallaby reproduction is one of the most remarkable systems in the mammal world, shaped by millions of years of evolution in an unpredictable, drought-prone environment. After a gestation of just 25 to 30 days — far shorter than almost any placental mammal of equivalent size — the mother gives birth to a joey that weighs less than one gram. This tiny, hairless, and blind newborn must immediately crawl unaided through its mother's fur and into the pouch, guided by scent and an instinctive pulling motion of its overdeveloped forelimbs. Once safely attached to a teat inside the pouch, the joey begins a development phase lasting approximately nine months. By five to six months it begins poking its head out to observe the world, and by seven months it takes short excursions outside before scrambling back to nurse. Full independence from the pouch comes at around eight to nine months, though young wallabies continue to suckle for a further several months. Perhaps the most astonishing adaptation is embryonic diapause: a female that mates shortly after giving birth can suspend the resulting embryo at an early stage of development, holding it dormant until the pouch joey is ready to leave. This means she can produce a succession of offspring with minimal delay, a critical advantage in boom-and-bust Australian conditions.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wallaby): Wallaby — wildlife guide.

## What threats do wallabies face?
While most common wallaby species remain abundant, a significant number — particularly rock-wallabies, hare-wallabies, and nail-tail wallabies — have experienced severe population declines since European settlement of Australia in the late 18th century. The primary driver is introduced predators. Red foxes, brought to Australia for sport hunting from 1855, and feral cats prey heavily on adults and joeys. Because wallabies evolved without these predators, many species lack effective avoidance behaviours. Predation pressure is compounded by competition from introduced grazers — sheep, cattle, and goats — which reduce the grasses and shrubs wallabies depend on and can force them into open areas where predation risk is higher. Land clearance for agriculture has also fragmented and reduced habitat, isolating populations and preventing genetic exchange. Climate change is an emerging multiplier: hotter, drier conditions drive more frequent and intense bushfires that can strip both shelter and food sources simultaneously. Vehicle strikes on roads bisecting wallaby habitat add further mortality. Some species, such as the Parma wallaby, were once believed extinct and were rediscovered in 1965 on Kawau Island, New Zealand, and confirmed on the Australian mainland in 1967; their populations are still estimated at 1,000–10,000 adults, making them genuinely vulnerable to any additional pressure. Three species — the rufous hare-wallaby, banded hare-wallaby, and bridled nail-tail wallaby — are listed on CITES Appendix I, reflecting the seriousness of trade threats for the rarest species.

## What is being done to protect wallabies?
Conservation efforts for threatened wallaby species focus on three main strategies: predator control, habitat protection, and managed breeding. Predator control programs using baiting and trapping of foxes and feral cats have produced documented population recoveries for several rock-wallaby colonies. Fenced predator-free sanctuaries provide safe refuges where small founder populations can rebuild without fox or cat pressure. Translocation programs move wallabies from stable populations to restock areas where local extinction has occurred; the return of black-flanked rock-wallabies to Kalbarri National Park in Western Australia is one well-documented success. National recovery plans under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act set species-specific actions for the most threatened species. Genetic management in managed collections helps maintain diversity that could be drawn upon for future reintroductions. Citizen science programs improve population monitoring by enabling trained volunteers to conduct standardised counts, addressing the longstanding challenge of inadequate survey coverage. Research into wallaby ecology continues to refine understanding of habitat requirements and minimum viable population sizes. At an international level, CITES Appendix I listings for the rufous hare-wallaby, banded hare-wallaby, and bridled nail-tail wallaby prohibit commercial trade. The single most important lever for long-term wallaby conservation remains controlling introduced predators at landscape scale — an ongoing challenge across Australia's vast and remote terrain.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently run projects for wallabies, as our rescue and conservation partnerships are focused in its partner-network countries. This guide is offered as free educational content because public awareness of threats facing marsupials — from habitat loss to invasive predators — helps build the global support that conservation anywhere depends on.

## Donation hook
Wallabies remind us how interconnected conservation challenges are — from invasive predators in Australia to habitat destruction worldwide. Supporting WARN's work in our partner countries helps protect the ecological systems and rescue networks that animals everywhere depend on.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wallaby): Wallaby — wildlife guide.

## Are wallabies the same as kangaroos?
No. Wallabies and kangaroos are closely related macropods in the family Macropodidae, but wallabies are generally smaller. The distinction is informal rather than strictly taxonomic — 'wallaby' is used for the smaller species, 'kangaroo' for the four largest species. Both groups share the same body plan: powerful hind legs, a balancing tail, and a pouch for raising young.

## What do wallabies eat?
Wallabies are herbivores. Most species graze on grasses and browse on shrubs, herbs, ferns, and leaves. Agile wallabies shift between grasses and legumes in the wet season and expand to fruit, flowers, and roots during drought. Swamp wallabies specialise in browsing shrubs that other wallabies tend to avoid. All wallabies share a large, multi-chambered forestomach where microbes ferment tough plant cellulose before it enters the digestive tract.

## How fast can a wallaby hop?
A large wallaby can reach a top speed of around 48 km/h (30 mph). Most species cruise comfortably at 25 km/h during normal movement. At very slow speeds, wallabies cannot hop and instead use 'pentapedal locomotion' — moving on both forelimbs, both hind legs, and the tail simultaneously, with the tail generating more forward force than any of the other four limbs combined.

## How long do wallabies live?
Lifespan varies considerably by species and conditions. In the wild, most medium-sized wallabies live between 9 and 15 years. Smaller species may survive only 5 to 7 years. In managed care, where predation and competition are absent, individuals have been recorded living into their mid-twenties.

## Are wallabies endangered?
It depends on the species. The majority of common wallabies — including the agile wallaby and red-necked wallaby — are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN with stable or recovering populations. However, a number of rock-wallaby and hare-wallaby species are Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered. The Parma wallaby is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List (and as Vulnerable under Australian national legislation), reflecting ongoing habitat loss and predation pressure.

## What is a group of wallabies called?
A group of wallabies is called a mob, court, or troupe. Smaller species tend to be more solitary, while larger species such as the red-necked wallaby may gather in mobs of up to 50 individuals at productive feeding sites. Mobs do not have a strict social hierarchy; membership is fluid and individuals come and go depending on resource availability.

## Where do wallabies live?
Wallabies live in Australia, New Guinea, Introduced populations in New Zealand and United Kingdom. Wallabies are small-to-medium marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, closely related to kangaroos, with more than 30 species ranging from common and widespread to Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered depending on the species.

## Are wallabies dangerous?
Wallabies are not generally dangerous to people. Wallabies are small-to-medium marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, closely related to kangaroos, with more than 30 species ranging from common and widespread to Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered depending on the species. Give wild individuals space and do not corner or handle them.

## How big is a wallaby?
A Wallaby is about 45–105 cm body length (species-dependent). Wallabies are small-to-medium marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, closely related to kangaroos, with more than 30 species ranging from common and widespread to Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered depending on the species.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
The dingo is Australia's native wild dog and apex predator, historically classified as Vulnerable due to widespread persecution and hybridisation with domestic dogs — though it was removed from the IUCN Red List in 2019 following taxonomic reclassification, and new genomic research suggests pure dingoes are more numerous than previously feared.

## Introduction
The dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is Australia's largest terrestrial carnivore and the continent's only wild canid. Lean, sand-coloured, and built for endurance across vast, sun-bleached landscapes, dingoes are far more than feral dogs: genetic and fossil evidence places their ancestors arriving in Australia roughly 3,500 years ago, almost certainly brought by seafaring peoples from maritime Southeast Asia. Over millennia they became fully integrated into Australian ecosystems, shaping plant and animal communities as a keystone apex predator. They also formed deep bonds with Aboriginal peoples, featuring in Dreaming stories, rock art, and daily life long before European colonisation. Today the dingo sits at the intersection of ecology, agriculture, and identity — celebrated by conservationists, persecuted by livestock farmers, and debated by taxonomists the world over.

## Takeaway
Dingoes arrived in Australia roughly 3,500 years ago, introduced by people from maritime Southeast Asia, and have never been wild-caught from other wolf populations.

## Takeaway
As Australia's apex predator, dingoes regulate kangaroo numbers and suppress introduced mesopredators such as red foxes and feral cats, benefiting native small mammals.

## Takeaway
The world's longest terrestrial fence — more than 5,614 km — was built specifically to exclude dingoes from south-eastern livestock country, isolating populations and reducing genetic diversity.

## Takeaway
New high-resolution genomic studies (2023–2024) overturn decades of dogma: the vast majority of wild canids tested across most of Australia carry predominantly pure dingo ancestry.

## Takeaway
Hybridisation with domestic dogs remains the principal long-term genetic threat, particularly in south-eastern Australia where isolation fragments populations.

## Takeaway
Dingoes hold profound cultural significance for many Aboriginal Australians — they were tamed, kept as companions, and buried with ceremony, evidence of a relationship spanning thousands of years.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## What is a dingo, and how is it classified?
The dingo occupies an unusual and contested place in the animal kingdom. Formally recognised as the subspecies Canis lupus dingo, it is most closely related to ancient semi-domestic dogs from East and Southeast Asia rather than to any modern domestic breed. Taxonomic debate has never fully settled: some authorities treat it as Canis dingo, a full species; others classify it within the domestic dog lineage as Canis familiaris. In 2024, the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium updated Australian mammal taxonomy to use Canis familiaris for the dingo, though Canis lupus dingo remains widely used in scientific and conservation literature. In 2019, the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group voted to treat the dingo as a feral domestic dog and removed it from the Red List — a decision that remains controversial among ecologists who point to thousands of years of independent evolution in Australia. Earlier, the IUCN had listed it as Vulnerable (category A2e) owing to population decline from hybridisation and persecution. Regional governments in Australia, including Victoria, continue to recognise it as a threatened taxon on state legislation. Physically, the dingo is a medium-sized canid: males weigh between 11.8 and 19.4 kg, females between 9.6 and 16.0 kg; both sexes stand roughly 60 cm at the shoulder and measure around 120 cm in total body length including the tail. The coat is typically golden-yellow but ranges through red, tan, black-and-tan, and pale cream. Crucially, dingoes cannot bark persistently; instead they howl in a manner closer to wolves than to domestic dogs.

## Where do dingoes live, and what habitats do they use?
Dingoes are found across almost the entire Australian continent, from tropical rainforests and coastal wetlands in the north to the searing deserts of the interior and the alpine moorlands of the south-eastern highlands. Their core stronghold today is the arid and semi-arid interior and the tropical north, where human settlement is sparse and large-scale lethal control is less intensive. South of the Dingo Fence — the world's longest terrestrial barrier at more than 5,614 km, stretching from Queensland through New South Wales and into South Australia — dingo populations are greatly reduced and fragmented. Beyond mainland Australia, a closely related population called the New Guinea Singing Dog persists in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and scattered dingo-type dogs are documented in parts of Southeast Asia including Thailand, Borneo, and Indonesia, pointing to the ancient dispersal route of the ancestral population. Within their range, dingoes are habitat generalists, adapting their behaviour to seasonal resource availability. In the desert interior they follow waterholes and exploit nomadic irruptions of rodents and kangaroos after rainfall events. In tropical savannas they regulate populations of macropods. In montane areas they prey on wallabies, wombats, and introduced ungulates. Home range sizes vary enormously — from around 10–50 km² in resource-rich coastal and suburban areas to over 1,000 km² in the most arid desert zones, reflecting the vast differences in prey and water availability across the continent.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## What do dingoes eat, and how do they hunt?
Dingoes are opportunistic apex predators and generalist carnivores. Their diet is overwhelmingly meat-based and shifts according to what prey is locally abundant. In arid interior habitats, kangaroos and red kangaroos form the backbone of the diet; in tropical and sub-tropical areas, wallabies, feral pigs, and wombats dominate. When large prey is scarce, dingoes readily take rabbits, rodents, lizards, birds, insects, and carrion. They are also capable scavengers and will exploit livestock carcasses. Hunting strategy scales with prey size. Solitary dingoes routinely tackle prey up to twice their own body weight, including agile wallabies. When targeting large prey such as red kangaroos or feral pigs, dingoes cooperate in family packs of three to twelve individuals, employing relay-chase techniques and coordinated ambush. Pack cohesion is strongest during the pup-rearing season and weakens outside breeding periods. Dingoes occupy a keystone predator role that structurally changes Australian ecosystems. Where dingo populations are healthy, kangaroo densities are lower, enabling grass and understorey vegetation to recover; this in turn benefits native small mammals, reptiles, and ground-nesting birds. Research published in peer-reviewed ecology journals has shown that where dingoes are removed by baiting, red fox and feral cat activity increases markedly, with cascading harm to smaller native animals. The ecological argument for dingo conservation is therefore not merely sentimental but grounded in decades of field evidence.

## Why are dingoes threatened, and what are the main dangers they face?
The dingo faces a suite of interconnected threats, most of them human-caused. Lethal control is the most immediate and widespread. Across pastoral Australia, government and landholder-funded programs deploy 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) poison baits, traps, and shooting to protect sheep and cattle. Hundreds of thousands of poison baits are laid every year; while primarily intended for feral pigs, foxes, and wild dogs, these inevitably kill dingoes. The practice is legal in all Australian states outside of conservation estates. The Dingo Fence, maintained since the early twentieth century, physically fragments populations in south-eastern Australia, preventing gene flow and leaving isolated groups vulnerable to inbreeding depression. Hybridisation with domestic and feral dogs poses the other major long-term threat. When dingo packs are disrupted by culling — removing breeding adults and breaking social structure — surviving individuals are more likely to mate with domestic dogs, diluting the genetic integrity of the population. Early studies estimated that fewer than 1–4% of dingoes in south-eastern Australia were genetically pure; however, landmark genomic research published in 2023 using high-resolution whole-genome sequencing found that 87% of canids sampled in Victoria were pure dingoes, challenging the scale of hybridisation previously assumed. Nonetheless, localised populations — particularly in the Big Desert of north-west Victoria where fewer than 20 individuals may remain — face genuine extinction risk at a regional scale. Habitat loss from land clearing and altered fire regimes also degrades dingo habitat.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## What is the dingo's relationship with Indigenous Australians, and why does it matter?
The dingo's arrival in Australia approximately 3,500 years ago almost certainly coincided with the arrival of new human groups from Southeast Asia, and from those first encounters a profound relationship developed. Archaeological evidence shows that Aboriginal Australians tamed dingo pups, rearing them within communities, using them as hunting companions, bed warmers, and protectors. Skeletal remains found at burial sites across southern Australia reveal that dingoes were sometimes interred with ceremony comparable to that afforded to human family members, indicating deep social bonds. Research published in 2022 in the journal Animals documented the intensive socialisation processes Aboriginal communities employed — raising pups from very young ages, integrating them fully into domestic life, and maintaining a semi-domestic population across the continent at the time of European contact in 1788. In 2026, archaeologists reported on a millennium-old dingo ritually buried by Barkindji ancestors along the Baaka (Darling) River, with the burial mound subsequently tended and fed with river mussel shells for centuries. Rock art at sites including the Wollemi wilderness area and the Burrup Peninsula depicts dingoes in scenes that speak to their spiritual as well as practical importance. In Dreaming stories, the dingo appears as an ancestral being, a guide, and a relative. For many Aboriginal communities today, the dingo remains a totem animal and its conservation is inseparable from the protection of cultural heritage. Understanding this history matters for policy: management decisions made without recognition of the dingo's deep cultural significance risk erasing something irreplaceable alongside any ecological harm.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently operate rescue or conservation projects for the dingo, whose range is confined to Australia — outside WARN's 17-country partner network. This guide is offered as free educational content because public understanding of apex predators, ecosystem balance, and the threats posed by large-scale lethal control programmes is valuable everywhere. The principles that make dingo conservation important — preserving keystone predators that structure whole ecosystems — apply equally to the wildlife WARN protects across its own field range.

## Donation hook
Apex predators like the dingo are the silent architects of healthy ecosystems — when they disappear, whole food webs unravel. WARN's conservation partners work to protect keystone species and the habitats that sustain them. Supporting WARN helps keep those ecosystems intact.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## Is the dingo a dog or a wolf?
The dingo is most commonly classified as a subspecies of the grey wolf, Canis lupus dingo, making it a canid more closely related to ancient semi-domestic dogs from Asia than to modern domestic breeds. In 2024, the Australasian Mammal Taxonomy Consortium reclassified it as Canis familiaris, aligning with the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group's 2019 decision to treat it as a feral domestic dog. The debate is genuine: the dingo descended from an ancient domestic or semi-domestic ancestor brought to Australia thousands of years ago, then evolved largely in isolation. It shares many behavioural traits with wolves — including howling rather than persistent barking — while its ancestry ties it to the early history of dog domestication in Asia.

## How long have dingoes lived in Australia?
The best-dated dingo bones from Australia come from Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain and have been radiocarbon-dated to between approximately 3,348 and 3,081 years ago. Some genetic studies suggest ancestors of the dingo may have been in the broader Oceania region for longer, but the most widely accepted current estimate is that dingoes have inhabited mainland Australia for roughly 3,500 years. This makes them a long-established part of the continent's wildlife, though they post-date the original settlement of Australia by Aboriginal peoples by many tens of thousands of years.

## Are most dingoes in Australia hybrids with domestic dogs?
Earlier studies suggested widespread hybridisation, with estimates of pure dingoes in south-eastern Australia as low as 1–4%. However, a landmark genomic study published in 2023 using high-resolution whole-genome sequencing — examining 195,000 points across the genome compared with just 23 in older tests — found that approximately 87% of wild canids sampled in Victoria were genetically pure dingoes. Across northern, western, and central Australia, purity rates are consistently high. Hybridisation does occur, particularly where dingo social packs have been disrupted by culling, but the scale of the problem appears to have been significantly overstated by older, lower-resolution genetic methods.

## What is the Dingo Fence and why does it exist?
The Dingo Fence — also called the Dog Fence — is the world's longest terrestrial barrier, stretching more than 5,614 km from Queensland through New South Wales and into South Australia. It was constructed and has been maintained since the early twentieth century with the aim of excluding dingoes from the sheep-grazing country of south-eastern Australia. While it has achieved its livestock-protection goal in some areas, ecologists note that it has severely fragmented dingo populations, isolated gene pools, and altered ecosystem dynamics on both sides of the barrier, leading to declines of native species in the dingo-free zone due to unchecked fox and feral cat activity.

## What do dingoes eat?
Dingoes are carnivores, eating kangaroos, wallabies, rabbits, rodents, reptiles and birds according to region and season. As Australia's largest terrestrial carnivore and only wild canid, they regulate kangaroo numbers and suppress introduced mesopredators such as red foxes and feral cats, benefiting native small mammals across desert, savanna, tropical forest and alpine moorland.

## Where do dingoes live?
Dingoes inhabit desert, savanna, tropical forest and alpine moorland across Australia. Ancestors arrived roughly 3,500 years ago and the species now ranges from tropical north to alpine south. Flexible social structure — solitary to family packs of three to twelve — helps them persist across sun-bleached landscapes where they function as a keystone apex predator.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/dingo): Dingo — wildlife guide.

## Are dingoes dangerous?
Dingoes can be dangerous if habituated to people or fed near campsites, particularly on Fraser Island where attacks on humans have occurred. Wild dingoes typically avoid humans. Male dingoes weigh 11.8–19.4 kg and females 9.6–16.0 kg. They are Australia's apex predator, persecuted by livestock farmers but vital for suppressing foxes and feral cats.

## How long do dingoes live?
Dingoes live five to ten years in the wild. They breed from March to June in Australia, with gestation lasting about 63 days and litters averaging around five pups. Their ancestors have been in Australia for roughly 3,500 years, integrating into ecosystems as the continent's only wild canid.

## How big is a dingo?
A Dingo is about ~120 cm (including ~30 cm tail). The dingo is Australia's native wild dog and apex predator, historically classified as Vulnerable due to widespread persecution and hybridisation with domestic dogs — though it was removed from the IUCN Red List in 2019 following taxonomic reclassification, and new genomic research suggests pure dingoes are more numerous than previously feared.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wolverine): Wolverine — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a large, powerful member of the weasel family found across boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, classified as Least Concern globally by the IUCN but facing serious pressure from climate-driven snowpack loss, trapping, and habitat fragmentation.

## Introduction
The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is the largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family, yet it punches spectacularly above its weight. Built like a small bear and armed with semi-retractable claws, a vice-like jaw, and musk glands that rival a skunk's, it roams the remote boreal forests, alpine tundra, and Arctic plains of the Northern Hemisphere. A single male may patrol a home range exceeding 500 square kilometres — one of the largest of any terrestrial mammal relative to body size. Wolverines are legendary for their ferocity, endurance, and appetite: the genus name Gulo is Latin for "glutton," and the animal's ability to cover 40 miles in a single day across deep snow has earned it an almost mythological reputation among both Indigenous peoples and wildlife biologists.

## Takeaway
Wolverines are the largest land-dwelling mustelids, yet males rarely exceed 18 kg — their strength is wildly disproportionate to their size.

## Takeaway
They depend critically on persistent spring snowpack for denning; females dig multi-chambered snow dens to birth and rear their kits.

## Takeaway
Climate change is the single greatest long-term threat, with projections suggesting suitable habitat could shrink by 63% by 2099 if warming continues unabated.

## Takeaway
The North American population segment in the contiguous United States (fewer than 350 individuals) was listed as Threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, effective January 2, 2024.

## Takeaway
Globally the species is rated Least Concern by the IUCN (2023), but with a decreasing population trend across most of its range.

## Takeaway
Wolverines are solitary, wide-ranging, and naturally low in density, making them exceptionally vulnerable to habitat fragmentation and slow to recover from population losses.

## What is a wolverine?
The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a stocky, muscular carnivore belonging to the family Mustelidae — the weasel family — and is the only living species in the genus Gulo. Despite resembling a small bear at first glance, it is more closely related to otters, martens, and badgers. Adult males typically weigh 11–18 kg (24–40 lb) and measure 65–105 cm in body length, while females are 30–40% smaller. The fur is dense, dark brown to black, with a pale buff stripe running along each flank that merges into a bushy tail. The wide, semi-plantigrade feet act as natural snowshoes, distributing weight across deep snow. Paired musk glands near the base of the tail produce a pungent secretion used for scent-marking territory and caching food — earning the wolverine the nickname 'skunk bear' in parts of North America. The skull is massively built with carnassial teeth capable of crushing frozen carcasses and the bones of large prey. Two subspecies are recognised: the Eurasian wolverine (G. g. gulo) and the North American wolverine (G. g. luscus).


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wolverine): Wolverine — wildlife guide.

## Where do wolverines live?
Wolverines occupy a circumpolar range spanning the boreal forests, alpine meadows, subarctic shrublands, and Arctic tundra of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America they are most numerous in Alaska and Canada, with a small, isolated population persisting in the mountainous regions of the contiguous United States — primarily the Northern Rockies of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. In Eurasia they range from Scandinavia east across Russia and Siberia, with strongholds in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian interior. Wolverines are strongly associated with persistent spring snowpack, and their distributional boundaries in many regions align closely with the April snow-cover line. They avoid areas with high human disturbance and require vast tracts of connected wilderness. Male home ranges typically span 400–1,500 km² and may reach or exceed 3,500 km² in areas of low prey density, among the largest recorded for any terrestrial carnivore of comparable body mass. Females maintain smaller ranges of roughly 100–300 km² that typically overlap the territories of one or more males.

## What do wolverines eat — and how do they hunt?
Wolverines are highly opportunistic omnivores, but carrion forms the foundation of their winter diet. They are famous for locating the carcasses of elk, caribou, moose, and other ungulates killed by deep snow or larger predators, using their powerful jaws to crack frozen bones that no other predator can access. In spring and summer the diet diversifies to include ground squirrels, voles, hares, porcupines, marmots, nesting birds, eggs, berries, and roots. Wolverines are also accomplished hunters capable of taking prey several times their own size — documented kills include white-tailed deer, caribou calves, and even adult reindeer in Scandinavia, often pursued through deep snow where their broad feet give them a decisive advantage over hooved prey. Food caching is a crucial survival strategy; wolverines use musk-scented 'larders' beneath snow or in rock crevices to store kills that may sustain them through lean periods. This caching behaviour is so central to their ecology that trapping bait stations have historically been used to target them, making trapping one of the significant historical causes of population decline across their range.

## How do wolverines reproduce, and what threatens their survival?
Wolverines breed in late spring to summer (May–August), but implantation is delayed until late autumn through a process called embryonic diapause — meaning fertilised eggs do not implant in the uterine wall until environmental conditions are suitable. Litters of one to five kits (typically two or three) are born in February or March inside elaborate, multi-chambered snow dens. The female excavates tunnels and chambers deep into consolidated snowpack — sometimes extending several metres — and kits remain hidden here until May, when they first emerge. This obligate dependence on persistent spring snow is the species' most critical and most threatened ecological requirement. Climate change is shrinking the snowpack that wolverines depend on for denning, food storage, and thermoregulation. Scientific modelling projects a 63% reduction in suitable wolverine habitat by 2099 under business-as-usual warming scenarios. Additional pressures include historical and ongoing trapping for fur, road fragmentation of connectivity corridors, snowmobile disturbance of dens, and competition from expanding wolves and cougars recovering into wolverine range.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wolverine): Wolverine — wildlife guide.

## What is the wolverine's conservation status, and are populations declining?
Globally the wolverine is rated Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2023 assessment), but this headline masks significant regional variation and a documented decreasing population trend across most of its range. The worldwide population is estimated at 15,000–30,000 individuals, the majority in Canada (estimated 15,000–19,000 in the western population) and Russia. Scandinavian populations have partially recovered under strict legal protection — Sweden held approximately 733–811 individuals in 2023, Norway around 378–411, and Finland an estimated 350–500 — but all remain far below historical levels and carry very low genetic diversity. The most imperilled population is in the contiguous United States, where fewer than 350 wolverines survive in highly fragmented mountain strongholds; the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed this population as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, effective January 2, 2024. The wolverine is listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning international trade in the species or its products requires documentation and oversight. Long-term viability depends on maintaining large blocks of cold, snowy wilderness connected by dispersal corridors — a challenge that grows harder as climate change accelerates and human infrastructure expands into remote landscapes.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently run projects for the wolverine — our rescue and conservation partnerships are focused in its partner-network countries, while wolverines range across the boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. This guide is offered as free educational content because understanding species like the wolverine — and the climate forces reshaping their world — builds the public awareness that sustains conservation everywhere. Every habitat saved, whether in the tropics or the far north, is part of the same global effort.

## Donation hook
Wild places are shrinking — from Arctic snowfields to tropical forests. Supporting WARN helps protect the habitats and rescue networks that give wildlife a fighting chance worldwide.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wolverine): Wolverine — wildlife guide.

## Is a wolverine actually related to wolves or bears?
No. Despite the name and bear-like appearance, the wolverine is a mustelid — a member of the weasel family (Mustelidae) — making it a close relative of otters, badgers, martens, and mink. Its resemblance to a small bear is purely superficial; anatomically and genetically it is firmly within the weasel lineage.

## How strong is a wolverine for its size?
Wolverines are exceptionally powerful for their mass. Their jaws can generate enough force to crack the frozen bones of large ungulates that no other similarly sized predator can access. They have been documented driving bears and mountain lions off kills. Their muscular frame, strong claws, and tenacious temperament allow them to take prey — such as reindeer and deer — many times their own body weight.

## Why do wolverines need snow to reproduce?
Female wolverines dig their birthing dens inside consolidated snowpack, typically in avalanche debris or on steep north-facing slopes where snow persists well into spring. The snow insulates the den, protecting newborn kits from extreme cold and predators. If spring snowpack disappears too early — as climate change is causing in many regions — kits can die from exposure before they are old enough to survive outside the den.

## Are wolverines dangerous to humans?
Wolverines are wild carnivores and should never be approached, but unprovoked attacks on humans are extremely rare and poorly documented. Their fearlessness around humans is more accurately described as a lack of flight response rather than aggression. They will boldly investigate camps and occasionally raid food caches or livestock, but they are not known as a significant threat to human safety.

## Why is the wolverine listed as Threatened in the United States if it is Least Concern globally?
The US lower-48 population is a distinct, isolated population segment of roughly 350 or fewer individuals, fragmented across mountain ranges in the Northern Rockies. This remnant population faces a combination of low numbers, limited connectivity between subpopulations, and rapid loss of the high-elevation snowpack it depends on — making it far more vulnerable than the broadly distributed global population, which is dominated by large Canadian and Russian numbers.

## What do wolverines eat?
Wolverines eat Carrion, small-medium mammals, birds, eggs, berries. The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a large, powerful member of the weasel family found across boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, classified as Least Concern globally by the IUCN but facing serious pressure from climate-driven snowpack loss, trapping, and habitat fragmentation.

## Where do wolverines live?
Wolverines live in ~400–1,500 km² (male); 100–300 km² (female). The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a large, powerful member of the weasel family found across boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, classified as Least Concern globally by the IUCN but facing serious pressure from climate-driven snowpack loss, trapping, and habitat fragmentation.

## How long do wolverines live?
Wolverines typically live Up to 13 years in the wild. The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a large, powerful member of the weasel family found across boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, classified as Least Concern globally by the IUCN but facing serious pressure from climate-driven snowpack loss, trapping, and habitat fragmentation. Wild and captive figures can differ; use the sources listed on the guide for the underlying studies.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/wolverine): Wolverine — wildlife guide.

## How big is a wolverine?
A Wolverine is about 65–105 cm (male). The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a large, powerful member of the weasel family found across boreal and Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, classified as Least Concern globally by the IUCN but facing serious pressure from climate-driven snowpack loss, trapping, and habitat fragmentation.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
The elk (Cervus canadensis) is a Least Concern deer species numbering over one million in North America, renowned for its towering antlers, powerful bugle call, and remarkable recovery from near-extinction in the early twentieth century.

## Introduction
The elk, or wapiti — a name derived from the Shawnee and Cree word meaning "white rump" — is one of the largest members of the deer family Cervidae and one of the most iconic large mammals in North America. Towering bulls can weigh more than 450 kg (1,000 lb) and carry sweeping antlers that grow nearly a metre across, while their haunting bugles echo across alpine meadows each autumn. Once reduced to barely 41,000 individuals around 1907 through unregulated hunting and habitat loss, elk have staged a remarkable recovery thanks to regulated hunting seasons, national parks, and coordinated wildlife management. Today, more than one million free-ranging elk roam North America, making their story one of conservation's great success narratives. Relatives also persist across Central and East Asia.

## Takeaway
Elk were hunted to near-extinction by 1907 but recovered to over one million animals through strict wildlife management and national park protection.

## Takeaway
Bull elk grow and shed a full set of antlers every year; antlers are the fastest-growing tissue in the animal kingdom, adding up to 2.5 cm per day at peak summer growth.

## Takeaway
The bugling call of a bull elk can travel several kilometres and reaches frequencies up to 4,000 Hz — unusually high for such a large animal.

## Takeaway
Elk are a keystone prey species: their grazing shapes plant communities, and their presence drives trophic cascades that influence everything from beavers to songbirds.

## Takeaway
Several Asian subspecies — including the Tian Shan wapiti of Xinjiang and Kazakhstan — remain far less secure than their North American cousins.

## Takeaway
Public wildlife literacy is vital: understanding why apex prey species matter helps build the societal support that funds long-term conservation efforts worldwide.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## What is an elk, and how does it differ from other deer?
The elk (Cervus canadensis), commonly called wapiti in scientific and Canadian contexts, is the second-largest member of the deer family Cervidae, surpassed in size only by the moose. Adult bulls typically stand 1.3–1.5 m at the shoulder and weigh 320–450 kg, though exceptional individuals exceed 500 kg. Cows are noticeably smaller, averaging 225–275 kg. Both sexes display the species' signature buff-golden body coat with a darker neck mane and a distinctive pale rump patch — the "white rump" that gave the animal its Algonquian name.

Unlike white-tailed and mule deer, which are more solitary, elk are highly social ungulates that form large herds, particularly outside the rut. Only bulls grow antlers, and a mature bull's rack can span nearly a metre and weigh 18 kg or more. These antlers are multi-tined, with a main beam and six or more points per side in prime adults. The species is sometimes confused with the unrelated European red deer (Cervus elaphus), and North American colonists initially applied the name "elk" to it by mistake — in Europe, "elk" means moose. Taxonomically, Cervus canadensis historically encompassed six North American subspecies; four survive today (Rocky Mountain elk, Roosevelt elk, Tule elk, and Manitoba elk), while the Eastern elk and Merriam's elk are extinct, plus several Asian subspecies across Siberia, Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia.

## Where do elk live, and what do they eat?
Elk occupy a remarkable diversity of habitats, from lush Pacific rainforests along the Pacific Northwest coast to high alpine meadows, sagebrush steppes, and ponderosa pine forests in the Rocky Mountains. Their optimal habitat combines productive grasslands or clearings for foraging with closed-canopy forest nearby for thermal shelter and predator cover. Seasonal elevation migration is characteristic: in spring and summer, herds move to high mountain meadows to take advantage of nutritious new growth; in autumn and winter, they descend to sheltered valley floors where snow depth is manageable.

Elk are highly adaptable grazers and browsers. In summer they prefer grasses, sedges, and forbs, which provide high protein and moisture. As winter approaches and green forage disappears, elk shift to browsing on shrubs, willows, aspens, and dried grasses, supplementing with bark when necessary. A large bull may consume 9–11 kg of forage daily.

In Asia, Tian Shan wapiti (C. c. songaricus) inhabit mountain ranges across Xinjiang in China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, preferring subalpine meadows and coniferous forest edges similar to those their North American relatives favour. Altai wapiti (C. c. sibiricus) range across Russia, Mongolia, and northern China. All Asian populations face greater pressure from habitat loss and poaching than their North American counterparts.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## How do elk behave during the rut?
Few wildlife spectacles match the North American elk rut, which unfolds from early September through mid-October. As daylight shortens and testosterone surges, bulls undergo a dramatic physical and behavioural transformation. Their necks swell with muscle, they shed the velvet from their now-hardened antlers, and they begin issuing one of the most extraordinary sounds in the natural world: the bugle.

An elk bugle opens with a deep, resonant grunt around 150 Hz, rises to a piercing, flute-like scream reaching up to 4,000 Hz, and ends with a series of grunts. The call can carry several kilometres and registers far above the typical frequency range of most large mammals. Bulls bugle to proclaim territory, challenge rivals, and attract cows. Dominant bulls assemble harems of five to twenty cows, which they vigilantly guard against competing males.

When bugling fails to settle a dispute, bulls spar by locking antlers and driving against each other. Serious fights can result in broken antlers or, rarely, injury or death. Between conflicts, bulls dig and wallow in mud pits, urinating into them and rolling to coat their coats in a pungent scent that cows find attractive. Gestation lasts approximately 245 days; cows give birth in late May or June to a single spotted calf, which can walk within hours of birth and is weaned by late summer.

## What threats do elk face, and how were they saved from extinction?
Before European colonisation, an estimated 10 million elk ranged across most of North America. Unregulated commercial hunting, conversion of grasslands to agriculture, and relentless competition with domestic livestock drove populations to a catastrophic low of roughly 41,000 animals by 1907. The Eastern elk (C. c. canadensis) and Merriam's elk (C. c. merriami) were driven entirely to extinction.

The recovery that followed was a landmark in wildlife management. The 1872 establishment of Yellowstone National Park created a critical refuge. Legislation outlawing commercial big-game hunting, the introduction of regulated hunting seasons, and decades of reintroduction programmes steadily rebuilt herds. Today the North American population exceeds one million.

Despite this recovery, ongoing threats include chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal prion disease spreading through deer-family species; vehicle collisions; habitat fragmentation from roads and energy development; and the loss of winter range to housing. Climate change is shifting vegetation zones upward, potentially compressing high-elevation summer habitat. In Asia, Asian subspecies face additional pressures from poaching for antler velvet used in traditional medicine markets, and from heavy livestock grazing in mountain habitats. The wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone in 1995 demonstrated that predator-prey dynamics are essential to ecological health: elk herds that were unchecked by predators had over-grazed riverside willows, reducing beaver populations and degrading stream habitats.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## What ecological role do elk play, and why do they matter globally?
Elk function as a keystone prey species in the ecosystems they inhabit. Through grazing and browsing, a herd of elk shapes plant community structure, influencing which tree and shrub species dominate a landscape and how dense the understorey becomes. Their selective foraging can open gaps in forest canopy, creating habitat for ground-nesting birds and diverse wildflowers.

The connection between elk, wolves, and riparian vegetation in Yellowstone has become one of ecology's most-studied trophic cascades. After wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone in the 1920s, elk grazed freely along riverbanks, stripping willows and aspens that stabilised stream banks. When wolves were reintroduced in 1995, elk altered both their numbers and their behaviour — avoiding lingering in open valley bottoms — allowing willows to recover, beaver populations to rebound, and stream channels to stabilise. Cooler, better-oxygenated water supported larger fish populations. This cascade illustrated how a single prey species can mediate an entire watershed's health.

Elk also serve as important hosts for a range of parasites and as prey for wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears, and coyotes, underpinning the food webs of North America's most biodiverse ecosystems. Their cultural significance to Indigenous peoples across North America — as a food source, a spiritual symbol, and a measure of land health — adds a social dimension to their ecological importance. Understanding these roles reinforces why protecting wild habitats everywhere, not only where a given species lives, sustains the biodiversity that all life depends upon.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently operate elk conservation projects, as WARN's wildlife rescue and habitat work is focused in its partner-network countries — regions outside the elk's primary range. This guide is offered as free educational content. Raising public awareness about species like the elk helps build the broad constituency for wildlife protection that benefits animals everywhere, including those in WARN's active programme countries.

## Donation hook
The elk's recovery shows what determined conservation effort can achieve — but wild habitats remain under pressure worldwide. Supporting WARN helps protect the ecosystems and wildlife communities that share our planet, ensuring future generations can experience the wonder of animals like the elk.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## What is the difference between an elk and a wapiti?
They are the same animal. "Wapiti" comes from the Shawnee and Cree word meaning "white rump" and is the scientifically preferred name to avoid confusion with European usage, where "elk" refers to the moose. In North America and parts of Asia, "elk" and "wapiti" are used interchangeably for Cervus canadensis.

## How fast do elk antlers grow?
Elk antlers are among the fastest-growing tissues in the animal kingdom, adding up to 2.5 cm (about one inch) per day during peak summer growth, with some records reaching 3.3 cm per day. A full set of antlers, which a bull grows and sheds every year, can weigh 18 kg or more. The growing antlers are covered in velvet — a soft, highly vascularised skin — which is shed in late summer once the bone has fully calcified.

## Why do bull elk bugle?
Bugling is the bull elk's primary long-distance communication during the autumn rut. The call — a low grunt around 150 Hz that rises to a high-pitched, haunting whistle reaching up to 4,000 Hz — advertises the bull's size, health, and dominance to rival males and to cows. Bugles can carry several kilometres across mountain terrain. A bull that out-bugles its rivals may win a harem without physical combat.

## How many elk are there in the world today?
North America alone holds an estimated one million or more free-ranging elk. Asian subspecies add further numbers: the Tian Shan wapiti numbers roughly 50,000 in Xinjiang and neighbouring Central Asian countries, while Altai wapiti populations in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China total an additional tens of thousands. The North American population represents an extraordinary recovery from a low of about 41,000 animals around 1907.

## Are elk dangerous to humans?
Elk are wild animals and can be dangerous, particularly bulls during the rut in autumn and cows protecting calves in spring. Rutting bulls are highly agitated and have charged and injured people who approached too closely in parks. Wildlife authorities consistently advise maintaining a distance of at least 23 metres (75 feet) from elk at all times and much greater distances if an animal shows signs of agitation.

## Is chronic wasting disease a serious threat to elk?
Yes. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease — similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy — that is always fatal in deer-family animals and has no known cure or vaccine. It is spreading geographically across North America and has been detected in elk herds in numerous states and provinces. Wildlife managers are closely monitoring its spread, and some jurisdictions have implemented carcass-movement restrictions to slow transmission between herds.

## What do elk eat?
Elks eat Grasses, forbs, shrubs, bark. The elk (Cervus canadensis) is a Least Concern deer species numbering over one million in North America, renowned for its towering antlers, powerful bugle call, and remarkable recovery from near-extinction in the early twentieth century.

## Where do elk live?
Elk range across North America from alpine meadows to forest edges, with relatives in Central and East Asia. They favour open grassland and woodland where they graze and bugle during the autumn rut. Shoulder height in bulls reaches 1.3–1.5 m. Habitat fragmentation from roads, housing and energy development still threatens winter range even after population recovery. The Shawnee and Cree word wapiti means white rump, describing a distinctive field mark.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/elk): Elk (Wapiti) — wildlife guide.

## How long do elk live?
Elk typically live 10–13 years in the wild, though some individuals reach 15 years or more. Gestation lasts about 245 days. Their slow maturity and large body size mean population recovery takes decades — North America's herds rebuilt from roughly 41,000 at the 1907 low to more than one million today through regulated hunting, national parks and coordinated wildlife management. Chronic wasting disease is an ongoing fatal threat in some regions.

## How big is an elk?
Elk are among the largest deer: bulls stand 1.3–1.5 m at the shoulder and weigh 225–450 kg, with the largest exceeding 450 kg (about 1,000 lb). Sweeping antlers can span up to about 1 m and grow as much as 2.5 cm per day at peak summer growth. Cows are smaller. This scale makes them a keystone prey species shaping plant communities across the mountain ecosystems they inhabit.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/beluga): Beluga Whale — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
The beluga whale is a small, all-white Arctic cetacean renowned for its extraordinary vocal range, flexible neck and ability to navigate beneath sea ice, currently assessed as Least Concern overall by the IUCN but with several regional populations in serious decline.

## Introduction
The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is one of the most distinctive and vocal mammals on Earth. Cloaked in pure white skin that earned it the Russian name beluga — meaning "white" — this small, stocky cetacean inhabits the Arctic and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere, navigating ice-choked waters with extraordinary dexterity. Unlike most whales, belugas lack a dorsal fin, an adaptation that allows them to swim freely beneath sea ice without snagging. Their flexible neck — another cetacean rarity — enables them to turn their heads in all directions. Perhaps most famously, belugas produce an astonishing repertoire of clicks, whistles, chirps and bell-like tones that earned them the enduring nickname "canaries of the sea." Highly social, intelligent and long-lived, they are sentinel species whose health mirrors the vitality of the entire Arctic marine ecosystem.

## Takeaway
Belugas are the only whales with a fully flexible neck, allowing them to nod and turn their heads — a unique trait among cetaceans.

## Takeaway
Their bulbous forehead, called the melon, changes shape as they produce echolocation clicks across a frequency range of 40–120 kHz.

## Takeaway
A single beluga calf is nursed for up to two years and calves are born dark grey, gradually whitening over the first decade of life — reaching full white at around seven years in females and nine years in males.

## Takeaway
The Cook Inlet population in Alaska has declined by approximately 75% since the 1970s and is now listed as Critically Endangered as a distinct population segment.

## Takeaway
Climate change is melting the sea ice belugas rely on for protection from orca predation and disrupting the prey fish they depend on.

## Takeaway
Underwater noise pollution from shipping and oil exploration masks beluga vocalisations, impairing communication and navigation in critical feeding grounds.

## What is a beluga whale, and how is it different from other whales?
The beluga whale is a medium-sized toothed whale belonging to the family Monodontidae — a group it shares with only one other living species, the narwhal. Its genus name, Delphinapterus, translates from Greek as "dolphin without a fin," and its species epithet, leucas, simply means "white." Both names capture the animal's most immediately striking features: its unmarked, porcelain-white skin and its smooth, finless back. Adult males reach up to 5.5 metres in length and can weigh as much as 1,600 kilograms, while females are somewhat smaller. Belugas are born slate grey or brownish; their skin lightens progressively through childhood and adolescence, becoming fully white by around the age of seven in females and nine in males. Beneath the skin lies a thick layer of blubber — typically around 10 centimetres deep, and thicker seasonally — that provides buoyancy, insulation and an energy reserve during Arctic winters. The prominent forehead, or melon, is composed of lipid-filled tissue and is uniquely deformable: belugas physically reshape it as they produce different echolocation sounds, giving them extraordinary sonar precision for hunting fish and navigating ice.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/beluga): Beluga Whale — wildlife guide.

## Where do beluga whales live, and how do they migrate?
Belugas inhabit a broad circumpolar range across the Arctic Ocean and adjacent subarctic seas, including Hudson Bay, the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Bering Sea, the Beaufort Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk and the waters around Svalbard and Greenland. They are opportunistic migrants, moving between shallow coastal estuaries in summer and deeper offshore or ice-edge waters in winter. In summer, large groups gather at warm, shallow river mouths and estuaries — a behaviour thought to facilitate moulting, as belugas rub against gravel to shed their outer skin. Some populations undertake migrations of thousands of kilometres; the Eastern Chukchi Sea population, for instance, travels from Alaska's coast to the Bering Sea and back each year. Belugas are capable of diving to depths of at least 1,000 metres and can remain submerged for up to 25 minutes, though most dives are shallower. They congregate in pods typically numbering five to 25 individuals, though aggregations of up to a thousand animals are occasionally recorded at prime summering grounds. This strong site fidelity — returning to the same estuaries year after year — is learned from mothers and maintained across generations, making each population genetically and behaviourally distinct.

## How do beluga whales communicate and hunt?
Belugas are among the most vocal of all cetaceans. Scientists have catalogued approximately 1,700 different vocalisation types produced in at least 21 different social contexts — a complexity rivalled by very few marine mammals. Their acoustic toolkit includes ultrasonic echolocation pulses (40–120 kHz), lower-frequency social whistles, chirps, clucks, mews, trills and resonant bell-like tones. This sonic diversity prompted early mariners to dub them "canaries of the sea." The melon focuses and steers echolocation clicks into a directed beam, allowing belugas to detect prey hidden in murky or ice-covered water with impressive accuracy. Their flexible neck lets them orient their head precisely toward a target, a significant advantage over most whales. Belugas are generalist predators, consuming more than 100 species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs depending on season and location. Favourite prey includes Arctic cod, capelin, herring, halibut, shrimp-like amphipods and squid. Pods cooperate to herd fish into shallows or trap them against ice. Intriguingly, belugas also display vocal mimicry — there are documented cases of captive individuals reproducing human speech patterns, suggesting a level of intentional sound-learning unusual even among cetaceans.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/beluga): Beluga Whale — wildlife guide.

## What threats do beluga whales face today?
Despite a global Least Concern classification, beluga whales face an escalating suite of threats that are driving several regional populations toward crisis. Climate change is the most pervasive: Arctic sea ice is retreating at an unprecedented rate, dismantling the frozen habitat that belugas use as refuge from orca predation and as a platform for their migrations. Warming oceans are also reshuffling prey communities, forcing belugas to dive deeper and more frequently to find food, which increases physiological stress and suppresses reproductive rates. Noise pollution from commercial shipping, seismic oil-exploration surveys and recreational vessels disrupts the acoustic world that belugas depend on for hunting, navigation and social cohesion; high-intensity noise can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. Chemical pollution is another persistent hazard — heavy metals such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants accumulate through the food chain, reaching concentrations in beluga tissue that compromise immune function and reproduction. Entanglement in fishing gear and direct vessel strikes pose additional mortality risks. Subsistence hunting by Indigenous communities continues under regulated regimes, but for already-small populations, any additional mortality can be significant. The Cook Inlet population of Alaska, now numbering only around 331 individuals based on 2022 aerial surveys, illustrates the extremity of decline that localised pressure can produce: it has lost roughly 75% of its 1970s numbers and is now separately listed as Critically Endangered.

## Why does the beluga whale matter, and what does conservation look like?
Belugas are apex consumers and ecological integrators — their presence indicates a productive, intact Arctic food web, while their decline signals systemic disruption. As long-lived, slow-reproducing mammals with strong maternal learning traditions, beluga populations cannot recover quickly from declines; a female produces at most one calf every two to three years after a 14-month gestation, and that calf is nursed for up to two years. Effective conservation therefore requires long-term, multi-threat strategies. In the United States, NOAA Fisheries monitors abundance through aerial surveys and has published recovery plans for the Cook Inlet Critically Endangered population segment. Canada's Species at Risk Act affords protection to the threatened St Lawrence Estuary population, whose numbers have declined by roughly 1–1.5% per year since the early 2000s. International coordination under CITES Appendix II regulates commercial trade in beluga products, requiring that any trade not be detrimental to wild populations. Reducing ship speed and rerouting vessels in critical habitats can significantly cut both noise and strike risk, and several Arctic nations have introduced voluntary or mandatory speed limits in sensitive areas. Scientific tagging programmes continue to unravel migration routes, helping governments identify and protect key foraging and breeding aggregation sites. Public engagement — through education, citizen-science monitoring and reduced plastic and chemical pollution — forms a critical third pillar of any realistic conservation response.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently run conservation projects for the beluga whale, and this guide is offered as free educational content to help people understand this remarkable Arctic species. While belugas range far outside WARN's current project countries of its partner-network countries, the pressures driving beluga declines — habitat degradation, pollution and climate disruption — are the same forces threatening wildlife in every corner of the planet. Understanding them matters everywhere.

## Donation hook
Arctic wildlife like the beluga whale faces an uncertain future as climate change, pollution and habitat disruption accelerate. While WARN focuses its rescue and conservation work on wildlife in its partner-network countries, every donation supports the broader mission of protecting animals and wild places — because healthy oceans and intact ecosystems benefit wildlife everywhere.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/beluga): Beluga Whale — wildlife guide.

## Why are beluga whales white?
Beluga whales are not born white — calves enter the world in dark grey or brownish skin. The progressive whitening occurs over the first seven to nine years of life (females whiten earlier, at around seven years; males at around nine) and is thought to serve as camouflage among Arctic sea ice, making the whales harder for predators such as orcas and polar bears to spot from above or below the water surface.

## How long do beluga whales live?
Belugas are remarkably long-lived for their size. Studies using growth layers in their teeth have found that individuals can reach 70 to 80 years of age, though the average lifespan in the wild is typically 35–50 years.

## Are beluga whales endangered?
The species as a whole is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (last assessed in 2017), with a global estimate of approximately 136,000 mature individuals. However, certain populations are in far more serious trouble: the Cook Inlet population in Alaska is listed as Critically Endangered, and the St Lawrence Estuary population is listed as threatened under Canadian law.

## What do beluga whales eat?
Belugas are opportunistic predators with a broad diet spanning more than 100 species. Their staples include Arctic cod, capelin, herring, halibut, squid and shrimp-like crustaceans called amphipods. Diet varies significantly by season, location and what prey is available in the local ecosystem.

## Why are beluga whales called the canaries of the sea?
Beluga whales produce an extraordinary variety of vocalisations — approximately 1,700 call types covering whistles, chirps, clucks, trills, mews and bell-like tones. The sheer musical richness of their acoustic repertoire reminded early sailors of songbirds, giving rise to the nickname 'canaries of the sea.' These sounds serve complex social, navigational and hunting functions.

## Can beluga whales swim backwards?
Yes. Unlike most cetaceans, belugas have unfused vertebrae in their necks, giving them a degree of neck flexibility that allows them to nod and turn their heads. Combined with their ability to use all fins independently, this anatomy lets them manoeuvre in tight spaces, including swimming backwards — a useful skill when navigating narrow channels under sea ice.

## Where do beluga whales live?
Belugas inhabit Arctic and subarctic seas across the Northern Hemisphere, including Hudson Bay, the Bering Sea and waters around Svalbard and Greenland. They migrate between shallow coastal estuaries in summer and deeper offshore or ice-edge waters in winter, gathering in pods of 5–25 individuals — occasionally up to 1,000 at prime summering grounds.

## Are beluga whales dangerous?
Belugas are not aggressive toward people in the wild. They are highly social, vocal cetaceans nicknamed the canaries of the sea for roughly 1,700 call types. Regional populations face serious threats including climate-driven sea-ice loss, vessel strikes, fishing-gear entanglement and lead poisoning from ammunition in scavenged carrion.

## How big is a beluga whale?
Adult males reach up to 5.5 m in length and can weigh as much as 1,600 kg according to this guide's stats. Females are somewhat smaller. Calves are born dark grey and gradually whiten over the first seven to nine years of life, an adaptation thought to camouflage them among Arctic sea ice.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## One-line answer
Marmots are large, burrowing ground squirrels of the genus Marmota found across mountain and steppe habitats in North America and Eurasia; most of the 15 species are Least Concern, though the Vancouver Island marmot is Critically Endangered and the Mongolian marmot is Endangered.

## Introduction
Marmots are the largest members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae), a genus of fifteen stout-bodied, burrowing rodents found across the mountains, steppes, and tundra of the Holarctic realm. From the sun-baked boulderfields of the Rocky Mountains to the wind-swept Eurasian steppe and the high passes of the Himalayas, marmots have conquered some of the harshest landscapes on Earth. Weighing up to 9 kilograms before they retreat underground each autumn, these charismatic mammals spend up to eight months in one of the deepest hibernations of any warm-blooded animal. Their piercing alarm whistles — capable of distinguishing aerial from ground predators — have earned them the nickname "whistle pigs." Social, curious, and ecologically important, marmots are both prey pillars for eagles and wolves and key engineers of alpine soils.

## Takeaway
Marmots are the heaviest members of the squirrel family, capable of nearly doubling their body weight before entering hibernation each autumn, reaching up to 9 kg in the largest individuals.

## Takeaway
Their sophisticated alarm-call system distinguishes predator types: a single short whistle signals an aerial threat such as an eagle, while repeated multiple whistles warn of a ground predator such as a fox or wolf — evidence of semantic communication confirmed by published research.

## Takeaway
Most of the 15 species are stable and listed as Least Concern, but the Vancouver Island marmot (approx. 427 wild individuals in 2025) remains Critically Endangered, and the Mongolian tarbagan marmot is Endangered after an approximately 85% population decline.

## Takeaway
Marmots hibernate in sealed underground chambers for five to eight months, suppressing heart rate and body temperature to survive on fat reserves alone.

## Takeaway
Climate change is compressing alpine habitat upslope, threatening populations by reducing summer foraging seasons and increasing plague susceptibility through drought-linked stress.

## Takeaway
As prolific burrowers, marmots aerate mountain soils, recycle nutrients, and provide critical shelter structures used by many other species.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## What is a marmot?
Marmots are robust, ground-dwelling rodents belonging to the genus Marmota within the family Sciuridae — the squirrel family. They are classified within the subfamily Xerinae, tribe Marmotini, alongside prairie dogs, chipmunks, and ground squirrels. Fifteen living species are recognised, ranging from the familiar groundhog (Marmota monax) of North American lowlands to the high-altitude Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) found at elevations up to 5,500 metres. Adults typically measure 41–75 cm in head-body length, with a bushy tail adding a further 10–25 cm, and weigh 2–9 kg depending on species and season. Their bodies are built for burrowing: short, powerful limbs, broad flat skulls, prominent incisors, and robust claws adapted to excavating hard mountain soil. Fur colouring ranges from the tawny ochre of the yellow-bellied marmot to the grizzled grey of the alpine marmot. Males and females are similar in appearance, though males are typically larger. The groundhog is unusual in preferring lowland woodland edges; the majority of marmots are montane or steppe animals that seek out open terrain with deep soil or talus slopes suitable for their extensive burrow systems.

## Where do marmots live?
Marmots occupy a vast Holarctic range stretching across three continents. In North America, species are found from Alaska's Brooks Range and the boreal tundra southward through the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Range into Mexico's northern highlands. The groundhog extends across the eastern deciduous lowlands of the United States and Canada. In Eurasia, the alpine marmot inhabits subalpine meadows of the Alps, Carpathians, and Pyrenees, while Himalayan and long-tailed marmots colonise the high-altitude grasslands and plateaux of Central Asia, Tibet, and the Qinghai-Xizang plateau — most commonly between 3,500 and 5,200 metres. The tarbagan (Mongolian) marmot occupies steppe grasslands across Mongolia, northern China, and southern Russia. Typical habitat features include: open terrain for vigilance; deep, frost-free soil or rocky talus for burrow construction; and productive summer vegetation to support intense pre-hibernation fattening. Marmots are especially abundant at elevations of 1,500–4,500 m, where cooler temperatures reduce competition from other rodents. Burrow systems are elaborate, with separate summer (shallow, multi-exit) and winter (deep, single-entrance) structures, the latter lined with dried grass to insulate the hibernating family group.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## How do marmots survive winter?
Hibernation is the defining adaptation of the marmot genus, and it is one of the most physiologically extreme examples among large mammals. As autumn advances, marmots enter sealed winter burrows — often with their entire family group — and sink into true torpor. Core body temperature falls to within a degree or two of burrow ambient temperature, heart rate drops from roughly 100 beats per minute to as few as 4–9 depending on species and depth of torpor, and breathing slows dramatically. Torpor bouts last up to two weeks, interrupted by brief arousals during which marmots rewarm and urinate; the physiological purpose of these arousals is still debated, though immune function and DNA repair are leading hypotheses. Most species emerge in April or May having consumed approximately one-third of their body mass in stored fat. Pre-hibernation fattening is therefore a summer-long priority: individuals that fail to accumulate sufficient fat — particularly juveniles and reproductive females during drought years — face significantly higher overwinter mortality. Intriguingly, research on yellow-bellied marmots published in Nature Ecology and Evolution (2022) has shown that hibernation appears to slow epigenetic ageing, contributing to their relatively long lifespan of up to 15 years — exceptional for a rodent of their size. Climate change is disrupting this tightly tuned cycle: warmer springs trigger earlier emergence, while reduced snowpack and summer drought can cut foraging seasons and compromise fat accumulation.

## What do marmots eat and who eats them?
Marmots are strict herbivores, feeding on a broad spectrum of montane vegetation including grasses, sedges, forbs, wildflowers, berries, roots, mosses, and lichens. Feeding bouts are most intense in mid-summer when meadow productivity peaks. As they graze, marmots serve as important seed dispersers, passing viable seeds through their digestive systems and distributing them across their home ranges. Their burrows and digging activity also aerate compacted alpine soils, accelerating nutrient cycling and influencing local plant community composition. As prey, marmots are central to mountain food webs. Primary predators include golden eagles and other large raptors, wolves, coyotes, foxes, badgers, wolverines, and bears. Marmots deploy a tiered anti-predator strategy: individuals take turns as sentinels, standing upright on prominent boulders to survey the landscape. Upon detecting a threat, the sentinel emits a specific call — a single short whistle that signals an aerial threat such as an eagle, or repeated multiple whistles that warn colony members of an approaching ground predator like a fox or wolf. Research on alpine marmots published in Ethology Ecology and Evolution has confirmed this represents genuine semantic communication, as colony members respond differently to each call type, retreating underground within seconds. Scent marking with cheek glands also helps demarcate territory and provide social information within the colony.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## Which marmot species are under threat?
The conservation picture across the genus Marmota is uneven. Most species, including the yellow-bellied marmot, alpine marmot, and groundhog, are assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN, with stable or recovering populations. However, two species face acute crises. The Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) is endemic to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and is classified as Critically Endangered (IUCN, assessed 2017). Once reduced to fewer than 30 wild individuals in the early 2000s, intensive recovery efforts — including captive breeding and reintroduction — have helped push the wild population to a record 427 animals across more than 30 mountain colonies as of autumn 2025, the highest count ever recorded. Despite this milestone, conservationists stress that the species cannot yet sustain itself without ongoing management. The Mongolian or tarbagan marmot (Marmota sibirica) is assessed as Endangered (IUCN, 2016) after suffering an estimated 85% population collapse since the mid-1970s, driven by intensive commercial hunting for fur and meat. Across the genus, emerging threats include climate-driven habitat compression (suitable habitat shifting upslope as temperatures rise), drought-linked mass-mortality events during hibernation entry, and sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis), to which several marmot species serve as reservoir or sentinel hosts — a dynamic that intensifies with climate variability.

## WARN work
WARN does not currently run field projects for marmots, as WARN's conservation partnerships are focused in its partner-network countries — countries outside the marmot's natural range. This guide is offered as free educational content, because public awareness of how animals respond to climate change and habitat loss matters everywhere. Understanding species like the marmot helps build the broader case for protecting mountain ecosystems globally.

## Donation hook
Mountain ecosystems that marmots depend on are being compressed by rising temperatures, leaving less room for entire communities of alpine wildlife. Supporting WARN's habitat protection work helps keep wild places intact for species whose homes are shrinking from the top down.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## Is a groundhog the same as a marmot?
Yes. The groundhog (Marmota monax), also called the woodchuck, is one of the 15 species in the marmot genus Marmota. It is unusual among marmots in preferring lowland, forested habitats rather than mountains or open steppe, but it shares all the hallmark marmot traits: burrowing lifestyle, deep hibernation, and herbivorous diet.

## How long do marmots hibernate?
Depending on species and elevation, marmots hibernate for approximately five to eight months each year, typically entering their sealed winter burrows in September or October and emerging in April or May. During this time they enter deep torpor, living entirely on fat reserves accumulated during the summer. Their heart rate can fall from around 100 beats per minute to as few as 4–9, depending on species and depth of torpor.

## Why do marmots whistle?
Marmots whistle to warn colony members of approaching predators. Research on alpine marmots has shown their calls are semantically meaningful: a single short whistle signals an aerial threat such as a golden eagle, while repeated multiple whistles warn of a ground predator such as a fox or wolf. Upon hearing an alarm call, the entire colony retreats underground within seconds.

## Are any marmot species endangered?
Yes. The Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) is Critically Endangered — it is one of the rarest mammals in the world, with a wild population of approximately 427 individuals as of autumn 2025. The Mongolian tarbagan marmot (Marmota sibirica) is classified as Endangered by the IUCN, having lost around 85% of its population since the 1970s due to hunting and trade.

## What do marmots eat?
Marmots are herbivores. They eat a wide variety of plant material including grasses, sedges, flowering herbs, berries, roots, mosses, and lichens. Feeding is most intense during summer, when they must accumulate enough fat reserves — roughly one-third of their body mass — to survive months of hibernation without eating or drinking.

## Where do marmots live?
Marmots live in Alpine meadows, steppes, tundra, forest edges. Marmots are large, burrowing ground squirrels of the genus Marmota found across mountain and steppe habitats in North America and Eurasia; most of the 15 species are Least Concern, though the Vancouver Island marmot is Critically Endangered and the Mongolian marmot is Endangered.

## Are marmots dangerous?
Their piercing alarm whistles — capable of distinguishing aerial from ground predators — have earned them the nickname "whistle pigs." Social, curious, and ecologically important, marmots are both prey pillars for eagles and wolves and key engineers of alpine soils. Give wild marmots space; do not corner or handle them.

## How long do marmots live?
Marmots typically live Up to 15 years in the wild (yellow-bellied marmot); up to 18 years (alpine marmot). Marmots are large, burrowing ground squirrels of the genus Marmota found across mountain and steppe habitats in North America and Eurasia; most of the 15 species are Least Concern, though the Vancouver Island marmot is Critically Endangered and the Mongolian marmot is Endangered. Wild and captive figures can differ; use the sources listed on the guide for the underlying studies.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/wildlife-guides/marmot): Marmot — wildlife guide.

## How big is a marmot?
A Marmot is about 2–9 kg (4.4–20 lb), up to ~9 kg pre-hibernation. Marmots are large, burrowing ground squirrels of the genus Marmota found across mountain and steppe habitats in North America and Eurasia; most of the 15 species are Least Concern, though the Vancouver Island marmot is Critically Endangered and the Mongolian marmot is Endangered.