Exhibit Pack Update – 22 July 2024

Summer storms are no joke here in Ely, Minnesota. We’ve had a few pretty intense weather events so far this summer – including a tornado warning! While tornadoes are pretty rare here, we often see a lot of strong winds come through. One of these winds snapped one of the trees that provided some excellent shade for the Exhibit Pack (see the photo above of the entire Pack resting in it’s shade). It was an unfortunate loss, but the wolves still have an incredibly lush environment with plenty of shady spots available for refuge from the sun.

The downside of this wonderfully dense vegetation is the ever-present bug issues we continue to have. We do our best to help provide comfort to the wolves as discussed in previous Exhibit Pack logs, but one additional way we’ve been trying to reduce the bug load is by weed eating some of the groundcover in the enclosure. We do this with a weed trimmer; we’re currently borrowing a battery-operated one from a staff member since it is much quieter, lighter weight, and less disruptive to our wolf ambassadors than the gas-operated one the Center owns. We do have a battery-operated weed trimmer on our Amazon WishList (as well as many other much-needed items) if you are looking for a way to support our wolf care department!

The Exhibit Pack has been fairly calm these past few weeks, with their activity lessening on some of the more hot and humid days. Grayson continues to initiate invite chases to Rieka, along with other social behaviors such as play bows, jaw sparring, and high tail wags. There seemed to be an increase in these interactions this summer as Grayson’s confidence grew as the leader of the Exhibit Pack. It will be interesting to see how their relationship and behaviors change as we enter the fall and winter seasons later this year.

Ely’s annual Blueberry Arts Festival is this weekend (7/26-7/28)! We will be providing some special blueberry-themed enrichment items at 12:00pm and 4:00pm CST during the weekend. If you’ll be in town, be sure to swing by our interpretive facility to observe the wolves’ behaviors when given blueberry brats, blueberry popsicles, and even blueberry snow cones! If you are unable to make it in person, you can still view these enrichments on our live cams. Learn more about wolves’ relationship to blueberries through the Voyageur’s National Park Wolf Project, as they have some extensive research regarding the summer diet of wolves here in northern Minnesota.