Home Improvements

Grizzer had a busy week with some necessary vestibule work around his enclosure and some pond cleaning. He’s spent a fair amount of time in the back half of the enclosure while contractors work, but work is drawing to a close today and he should have his world back. The improvements will help dramatically as it now allows staff to monitor a wolf in holding overnight from inside the building. We found this to be necessity when Luna was in holding for a 12 hour fasting before her medical exam. There was a corner of the holding are that was behind a fence panel and we couldn’t see her. Which meant that I needed to sleep inside the kennel with her. While I may not be opposed to sleeping with a wolf, (especially Luna who has a tendency to sit on my head), other staff people may prefer to watch from the lab. We also find that the wolves may settle down better without staff constantly coming out to check on them. So, as with most of our enclosure upgrades, we always encourage Best Management practices and that includes the best facility design to care for our wolves. Grizzer is back up to 122 lbs which was his weight during the spring of 2009, when he was just turning 5. His highest weight was 129 lbs that fall. Maybe Grizzer is reliving his youth, certainly he has no food competition that would keep him from maximizing resources.