Santuario do Caraça – the holy refuge of unusual wolves (11 photos + 1 video)

According to modern classification, there are 24 species of wolves in nature. In this fascinating Brazilian neo-Gothic monastery, you can get up close and personal with one of them - the rare maned wolf.





The maned (maned) wolf, guara or aguarachai (lat. Chrysocyon brachyurus) is a predatory mammal of the canine family. The only modern representative of the genus Chrysocyon.



Maned wolf

In Brazil, there is one place where wild wolves come at night - Santuario do Caraça, which is often called the “monastery of maned wolves”.

Santuario do Caraça





Santuario do Caraça is an unusual place. It is not only a place of spiritual pilgrimage, but also a natural reserve. Founded in 1774 by the Portuguese monk Brother Lourenço, Caraça was later converted into a seminary that served as an important Catholic educational institution for nearly 150 years. Until the school burned down in 1968.



Santuario do Caraça

Renovating the school building was considered too expensive. And the authorities decided to preserve this place as a site of cultural heritage and religious pilgrimage. Today the sanctuary is under the joint management of several departments.

Nestled under the night sky on the steps of this atmospheric neo-Gothic monastery, you can observe the beauty of the maned wolf from a very close distance. For those who have had the chance to encounter one of these rare creatures, it is a surreal and wonderful experience.



Garden, church and hotel

The tradition of feeding wolves began in 1982. Father Tobias, who was the head priest at the time, noticed that garbage cans in the monastery often overturned and were raided at night by unknown thieves. Wanting to find the intruder, he did not go to bed. And to my surprise I discovered that it was a maned wolf who was hunting for garbage cans. The high-altitude grasslands of the Cerrado, surrounding the Santuario do Caraça, are the favorite habitat of these unique canids.



Courtyard

But even if the monks did not know how unique the wolf was, its appearance alone was enough to please them. To protect their garbage cans from raids, the monks began leaving pieces of meat in bowls nearby for the wolf.

Since then, many generations of animals came to the monastery for dinner. Today, people staying overnight in Karas can take part in animal encounters. Only for this you will have to be patient and sit still, quietly and silently for several hours after dinner, waiting for the arrival of your four-legged guests.



This unique animal is more like a fox with very long thin legs. But unlike the ferocious North American and Eurasian wolves, which are not averse to feasting on people, the maned wolf is a timid and unsociable creature, unable to hunt large prey and feeding mainly on fruits and rodents.



The tradition of night meals has been preserved for more than 40 years. These wolves play an important role as ambassadors for their species, as encounters with them help increase people's knowledge of these endangered animals and preserve their natural habitats.



Currently, the monks feed maned wolves with a specially developed and balanced food, which was created by a group of specialists from various fields.



Subsequent studies by ecologists have shown that this is not harmful and does not affect their natural behavior and functions in their natural habitat.



A visit to this 17th century monastery can be a truly mystical experience. Here you can spend the night under the stars, sitting on the steps under the gaze of the sculpture of the Virgin Mary and watching the antics of these funny creatures and their nightly meal.