Grizzer – A Prized Possession

This week’s photo shows Grizzer carrying a deer head.  What’s so unusual about that, nothing, but it offers us a chance to reflect to one of our “Gone, but Not Forgotten Packmates”.   Carrying possessions is the most effective method to get food away from a killsite, which is always a gathering place for scavengers.  So, it’s not unusual for wolves to carry food, cache it and come back to it later. What does seem to occur in captivity is the tendency for wolves to carry food and travel within in feet of another wolf, before going off to chew on the possession.  Lucas, the dominant male from the 1993 litter, used to carry the deer head, drop it in front of his packmates, growl in defense, pick it up and trot off.  If the packmates wouldn’t follow him, he would continually bring the head back to them until he got a response.  Grizzer lives alone, so his deer head possession was brought to the wolf care staff, needless to say, we didn’t follow.