Canis lupaster
Silhouette: Susan Murphy (original photograph), T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The African wolf (Canis lupaster) is a canine native to North Africa, West Africa, the Sahel, northern East Africa, and the Horn of Africa. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. It is primarily a predator of invertebrates and mammals as large as gazelle fawns, though larger animals are sometimes taken. Its diet also includes animal carcasses, human refuse, and fruit. It is monogamous and territorial; offspring remain with the parents to assist in raising their parents' younger pups.
The African wolf was previously classified as an African variant of the golden jackal, though a series of analyses on the species' mitochondrial DNA and nuclear genome in 2015 demonstrated that it is a distinct species more closely related to the gray wolf and coyote. It is nonetheless still close enough to the golden jackal to produce hybrid offspring, as indicated through genetic tests on jackals in Israel, and a 19th-century captive crossbreeding experiment. Further studies demonstrated that it is the descendant of a genetically admixed canid of 72% gray wolf and 28% Ethiopian wolf ancestry.
It plays a prominent role in some African cultures; it was considered sacred in ancient Egypt, particularly in Lycopolis, where it was venerated as a god. In North African folklore, it is viewed as an untrustworthy animal whose body parts can be used for medicinal or ritualistic purposes, while it is held in high esteem in Senegal's Serer religion as being the first creature to be created by the god Roog. Wikipedia →
Call0:42
Tunisia · 2016
© Cedric Mroczko · XC505360 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Recording0:25
Morocco · 2025
© Demian Hiß · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
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Algeria · 2024
© Bernard Noguès · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Friguia Park | 🇹🇳 Tunisia |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report an African Golden Wolf sighting in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, based on 198 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 9th most-seen of the 37 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report an African Golden Wolf in Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a given day, against about 50% in August and November–May, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most African Golden Wolf sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate African Golden Wolf sightings, Ngorongoro Conservation Area has the highest daily chance: about 60%. Next come Serengeti National Park (Tanzania, about 30%) and Amboseli National Park (Kenya, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the African Golden Wolf is recorded against all the mammals logged in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (198 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
