Aidan – Showing his Age

A wolf in the wild may be considered old at eight years of age.  In captivity, a wolf may be considered middle age considering a captive lifespan of 15 – 18 years of age.  As a pack leader, Aidan seems to be aging more than his litter mate Denali who is a lower ranking wolf.   As the pack leader, Aidan is often showing more activity when maintaining his dominance, responding to external stimuli, whether they be human or animal visitors outside the perimeter fence and guarding food from the scavengers that frequent the exhibit.  There have been several studies in both wild and captive wolf projects assessing the level of stress in individuals based on their social rank hierarchy.  These studies assess the level of fecal cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland.   People often think that the lower ranking wolves may carry more stress because they are being dominated through hard muzzle bites or being pinned to the ground, but actually, some studies have shown more dominant wolves with higher cortisol levels.  This is no surprise to our wolf care staff, we see how hard Aidan works to keep this Exhibit Pack in line.