denali – Mar 2, 2009 12:00 AM

This past week, the curator was out of town attending conferences for the HP grant and the Society of American Foresters. While we manage with a style of multiple wolf care staff, the change in routine can have an impact on the wolves. To distract the pack from this change, items are given to provide them a behavioral outlet. Last week, a bison hide that was donated from a hunter was given to the pack on Monday. This provided a significant amount of behavior including tug of war, guarding behavior, active submission and dominance and overall excitement. While Aidan was more involved in the wolf on wolf interaction, Denali was completely focused on chewing the hide, no matter who was also on the carcass. This could explain why Denali has now surpassed the size (height anyways..) of all of the wolves in the enclosure. The full video clip of the bison hide will be included with the YouTube video this week.