denali – Sep 3, 2010 12:00 AM

Wolf care staff owe Denali an apology. When we do wolf care, we see Denali testing Grizzer, foreleg stabbing and pawing at Grizzer until he gets aggravated. What we observed during the wolf watch was a completely different scenario. Denali spent most of the observation period wandering the front of the enclosure, looking for Grizzer. Grizzer spent most of the observation period hiding behind bushes and rocks, in a ambush stance, waiting to pounce on Denali or at least make direct eye contact with him. Eamonn Briem wrote: "Denali seems a little nervous about Grizzer. He is skittish when Grizzer comes around. His ears are always back and turned sideways and his tail was as low as a T 3.5 (touching his haunches). Sometimes he was so focused on Grizzer that he ran sideways and ran over Aidan and Maya." We believe, when we do wolf care, we provide Denali some confidence to test Grizzer, but when the pack is alone, Denali has no confidence, and he won't take Grizzer on alone.