aidan – Jun 26, 2010 12:00 AM

Sorry for the delay in logs, the curator attended the North American Moose Conference and Workshop for the last few days. Aidan has had some interesting dynamics in the last week. He was observed doing a raised leg urination followed by a scrape of the ground to broadcast his scent. This is characteristic of a confident, typically more dominant wolf. In the wild, where marking and communication are more critical than in captivity, it is typically the dominant pair of wolves that display this behavior. In the Exhibit Pack, we do not see as rigid of a rule about RLU displays, but it still denotes an animal that is displaying more dominant behavior. RLU alone is not significant, but if you review the photos in the last few logs, as well as the photo this week, there is a trend in behavior for Aidan to try for more status. In this week's photo, Aidan is attempting to do a grab bite to Grizzer while Denali has Grizzer occupied.