Exhibit Pack Update – 13 October 2023

We want to recognize the work of the Working for Wolves crew that took place during September. People came in to help enrich the lives of the wolves and the big project that we had was getting the transition area ready for the next set of retirees. We don’t know when that would happen, but we certainly wanted to make sure that things were ready. For that we built den boxes, took down some old rotting fencing, and we put up some plexiglass panels to let sunlight into a space we call the transition area. The plexiglass helps give a little bit more wind protection than the bigger wide-open dens but also, we find that by having the den boxes up on blocks they won’t have the cold damp ground underneath. The past retirees that really used this transition area were Grizzer and Denali. When we found out about Axel’s sebaceous adenitis diagnosis, we wanted to make sure that we were ready to offer warm and dry spaces even though his hair has now grown back as a good dense winter coat. But you never know with this skin condition if there could be issues in the future in which he’d need a little bit more protection than the average wolf. 

While we have no permanent residents in the retirement enclosures, we do allow the exhibit pack to come into these other sections periodically. Often times it’s when we are trying to get some work done in the main exhibit and we don’t need the help of younger wolves, such as taking the UV filter system out or maybe using the hose to wash windows or any kind of project or maintenance like that.  

In the exhibit pack things are going pretty well. Caz and Rieka seem to have their social greetings, but I also want to point out that Caz and Blackstone still really see these arctics as dominant. Axel and Grayson as far as being ready for retirement, they’re middle-aged and they’re not all that much weaker. They’re fairly intense and they’re good at dominating and protecting their food resources and the yearlings usually respect that. That’s an important component as we look at the future and retirement of wolves. We always want to see what the dynamics are like. Caz and Blackstone are yearlings and our previous yearlings had started to test the older wolves a little bit by this time but these two really haven’t.  

Overall a very calm pack! Rieka and the artics probably have the strongest relationship in comparison to the yearlings since Rieka being a year older has spent more time with them but it is one of those dynamics that can be influenced by the older wolves having their own rank order. And based on experience we know to keep an eye on the dominant female as she’s going to probably dictate the actions of the pack.
 

Thanks to Mary Ubel for the rare picture of all five ambassadors!