Exhibit Pack Update – 5 May 2022

It has been a long week, but we are happy to report that Rieka had a successful recovery from a recent spay surgery.  She went into the clinic on Saturday April 30th, and has had 24 hour a day contact with staff, either spending time in the building, sleeping on her fleece blankets or chewing on deer hides and other treats in the adjoining kennel.  Due to the extended snow and ice and overall wet conditions, she didn’t get a much time in the Pack Holding Area adjacent to the Exhibit Pack.  After a vet check this morning to determine that her sutures were healing nicely, we let her have some outdoor time with a direct fence to fence greeting with Axel and Grayson.  She will rejoin them on Friday, May 6th by 2 pm.

Here is an observational log completed by our wolf education team:

The wolves were all quite excited this morning. Axel and Grayson were fixated on the fence trying to see Rieka. At around noon Care staff let Rieka into the pack holding area. All three wolves were very excited to interact through the fence. Rieka was very active in pack holding for a while, exploring and digging holes.

Rieka and Grayson spent a fair amount of time sleeping next to the fence line near each other. When Rieka wasn’t napping at the fence, Grayson was napping in the shade provided by the trees near the fence. Axel also stayed fairly close to the pack holding fence for much of the day but did not appear to have the same level of fixation/concern as Grayson.

Grayson engaged in multiple bouts of howling throughout the day. As far as I am aware neither Rieka nor Axel joined in at all.

At 430 Axel was lying in front of the auditorium windows. Grayson was sleeping under the pine tree near the pack holding fence line and Rieka was sleeping on top of the den in pack holding.

Notice Rieka digging and through the fence on the right side, you can see Grayson resting right outside the gate.