Aidan – A Relaxed Birthday

Even though this image was only taken 7 days ago, a lot has changed.  We have finally lost our snowfall, but ice remains under the cover hay and the pond water line is still frozen underground.  The incidents of jaw sparring have decreased as the temperatures have warmed up.  We had a great webinar for Aidan and Denali’s birthday on April 27th.  Denali and Boltz feasted on a large chunk of meat first while Aidan relaxed, then in true wolf form, as soon as the webinar ended, Aidan got his fill.  Afterward, he proceeded to display some social interaction with Boltz, before displaying an invite chase to Luna.  Before starting Ivermectin treatments in May, we weighed all the wolves. Aidan continues to gain from 129 lbs in 2013 to 137 lbs today.  We prefer to have him lose these 10 lbs that have been added in the last two years, but managing one wolf’s diet when a deer is fed can be challenging.

6/4/2013	Aidan	129 lbs
8/14/2013	Aidan	133.32
6/13/2014	Aidan	136.25
5/1/2014	Aidan	137.79 lbs

We are also concerned that his excess belly fat may be related to higher levels of cortisol due to increased conflict as the dominant male of the Exhibit Pack.  In the past, I have written grants for lab equipment to measure fecal cortisol, but unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful.  I will continue to seek funding to be able to monitor stress condition for our ambassador wolves, but until then, I will be monitoring other facts that might indicate stress.