5 February 2021 Update
With the Center being closed throughout the early winter due to COVID restrictions, Axel and Grayson seemed very interested in the return of visitors to the Center by late January. They positioned themselves at the windows, watching the activity as visitors made some face-to-face connections, especially those exuberant younger visitors. As the Center went back to the “What’s for Dinner” program, we switched from smaller, more frequent feedings to the larger deer torso feedings. This created some interesting rank-order behaviors between Axel and Grayson who have been posturing for some rank since Denali retired. Grayson seems to be increasing his confidence without Denali’s intimidating presence. With Grayson’s tendency for bonding, we are very interested to see how he interacts with the pups next summer.