Denali – Can Dish it, But Can’t Take it

Denali has been on the delivery end of attention towards the pups since their introduction into the pack.  His 148-pound body displayed chasing, pouncing and pinning behavior to the pups as part of his daily greetings.  Axel learned to accept it and even came to mimic Denali creating some lengthy bouts of social interactions and tug-of-war scenes over deer carcasses.  Grayson, being a bit more timid in personality, took a while to see this behavior as enduring.  Grayson learned to stick close to Aidan and avoid the interactions, unless he was luck enough to gain possession of a deer hide.  Now that the pups are nearing a year of age, Grayson is no longer sitting on the sidelines;  He’s an active participant, that is, when Aidan’s in the picture.  But, Denali who has certainly dished out his fair share of interaction, is less than cordial with being the recipient of attention.  In this photo, Axel is on the far side, and his tail is low, somewhat indifferent to Denali; Remember, he’s spent the last 8 months engaging in Denali’s interactions.  What’s noticeable in this photo is Grayson’s tail.  His tail is facing the camera and is the best description of T1 – over the back arousal.   Also noteworthy in this this photo is that Aidan is quite relaxed about Grayson’s new found confidence.  Staff don’t intervene on this interaction, intervention can be lead individual wolves to think they “won”.  When staff deal with these interactions, we always make sure we leave the enclosure with an assessment of tension.  Shortly after this 2-minute bout of ritualized dominance, we had all wolves in close proximity during a pup feeding with no tension between any of the individuals.  Wolves display ritualized dominance to keep order and reduce more intense discourse.