16 October 2020

The tension of the last 24 hours seems to have resulted in some dominance from Grayson towards Denali that made Denali less mobile and more vulnerable to the heightened activity of the younger pack mates, especially with the first ground covering snowfall of the season.  We made the decision to retire Denali this morning.  He will be in the East Side Retired Area, Boltz will be in the Pack Holding Area and Grizzer will be in the transition area and back habitat.  We will use this weekend to get everyone situated in the new arrangement and will keep the cameras off.  At this time, we do not know compatibility for the wolves to join each other, we definitely need answers on Boltz before we add any activity to his life.  I can tell you that all 3 have good cover and will have the full focus of the wolf care on duty.  Boltz is recovering extremely well, actually better than we expected.  When he was released back into the Pack Holding Area from the Wolf Care Center, the first thing he did was find Denali’s cached beaver tail and take it to the stump (he has become a stump eater lately, he doesn’t like dirt on his food). Grizzer has his favorite Back Habitat Den and the entire transition area.