The Biriah (name chosen by popular vote)
The maned wolf, chosen to be the mascot of Biri, is an animal that inhabits our region and in danger of extinction. It is the largest canid of South America and the most beautiful and elegant representative of his family in Brazil. It is very shy, but it is not as fierce as many think, on the contrary, is docile and only attacks when it gets scared. "Guará" in Tupi means red and its scientific name, Chrysocyon Brachyurus means "golden animal short tail".
A close relative of the dog-eating fox and fox field, the maned wolf has nocturnal habits, being more responsive to dusk and dawn. During the day, is resting on the grass, lying every day in one place. Habita open environments such as savannah and the fields and not live in groups, but in pairs, living about 16 years.
Guará quite measure 130cm length plus the tail 40 cm, and weighs about 23 kg. Your most striking features are the tall, thin size, long legs, elongated and small head, ears large and erect and the reddish-brown, and its entirely black legs. He did not howl like the other wolves, but late and feeds on small rodents, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, mollusks and fruits like Fruit-of-wolf, peach, passion fruit, etc.
A few years ago the maned wolf could be found Piauí to Rio Grande do Sul, as well as Paraguay and Argentina, but today, hreatened with extinction, it is no longer found in many of these places. It is estimated that in Brazil there are only 22 000 maned wolves. In other Latin American countries, guazus Aguarás, as they are called, do not reach two thousand individuals added. The poaching and the decline in the cerrado for crops and livestock are the main causes of their extinction. The Biri, concerned about the environment, seeks to reinforce the importance of greater care with the preservation of this animal, so it does not run the risk of disappearing, like so many others.