grizzer – Oct 19, 2006 12:00 AM

It's been a busy week in wolf care. The colder weather and snow arrived late last week, creating a few issues in the Exhibit Pack. The first and most obvious issue was the pond. The temperatures were low enough to cause the pond to ice over and the pump and waterleveler to be in danger of freezing underground. In previous years, we were able to keep the water in the pond until after the "Working for Wolves" weekend during the last weekend of October, but no luck this year. Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt and assistant curator, Donna Prichard spent last weekend dealing with pond draining and pump removal. The second issue that kept staff busy was the increase in aggressive behavior caused by the natural cycle of hormones and probably stimulated by the cooler weather. Grizzer, who in past weeks, had been asserting status over Malik, had begun to test Shadow. He had a rather intense display of dominance that pinned Shadow to the ground, with Malik coming in to assist. Staff were in the enclosure at the time, and provided beaver tails as a distraction. Behaviors have calmed considerably since that first snowy day, but we know maturing wolves are going to test their older packmates if they detect weakness. Shadow was able to maintain status, and as shown at the end of Grizzer's video clip, still actively dominantes Grizzer. It is imperative that wolf care staff keep the wolf yard as calm as possible. Any out of the ordinary activity behind the enclosure can affect the delicate balance of this male order.