grizzer – Jul 9, 2010 12:00 AM

Grizzer is improving in social interactions. On the first few days after Shadow's retirement, he was more aloof, and seemed a bit anxious. In the last week, this has improved, and he is again socially interacting with Denali in wrestling behavior. Wolf care staff did two things that helped stimulate Grizzer. The first was the application of fly spray on the ground to stimulate scent-rolling. This was a management need to help apply fly repellent to the wolves coats, but it served to stimulate Grizzer who is obsessed with scent-rolling. The second activity to help Grizzer related to a dog pup. As many of you will recall, Grizzer is extremely social to pups. We had one of our Vermilion students bring their 3 month old dog pup to the outer gates and in the observation area. Grizzer was extremely excited, and was face to face through the windows with the pup (we would never risk a dog pups life by bringing them into a pack of wolves, it is even risky to introduce wolf pups). This worked, the following day, Grizzer was far more socially interacting, if we're lucky, the dog pup may have stimulated an increase in prolactin hormone, a naturally occuring nuturing hormone that cycles in summer.