grizzer – Jan 7, 2011 12:00 AM

Grizzer is showing a lot of confidence this week, and wolf care staff are making a lot of effort to spend time with him. For the first time since Denali's reintroduction, Grizzer has allowed Denali to greet wolf care staff without driving him away. This is a reflection of his confidence with allowing lower ranking wolves to be greeted. This is a common occurrence in wolf packs, and we had significantly more issues with this behavior when Shadow first established himself as the Exhibit Pack leader in the winter of 2002. He wouldn't allow any wolf care staff to greet Lakota without showing some aggressive dominance to Lakota, at least Grizzer just chases Denali. Of course, that might be Grizzer's problem, he's a passive leader, which often doesn't gain the respect of lower ranking wolves.