lakota – Nov 10, 2008 12:00 AM

This will be Lakota’s last posting before she joins the others in the Gone But Not Forgotten pack. She was a pup who knew how to possess food, and this trait continued throughout her life. I thought I would write the most notable behaviors that come to mind when we think of Lakota. She was the omega or lowest ranking pack member and maintained this pack status throughout her entire life. This didn’t mean she was down and out, just that she served an important role at the bottom of the pack rank. She was often the instigator of dominance chases, with the pack close on her tail. She was also an efficient excavator, creating most of the den holes in the enclosures. The area for the new pond in the Retired Enclosure was primarily dug by Lakota, the staff just shaped it as a pond. The most notable was the last 6 months of management, when we gave her free reign of the wolf yard and lab. Having Lakota in the wolf lab did have its management issues; she became quite fond of taking items from the lab and running back into the Retired enclosure. Her list of larceny items included: pillows, backpacks, water bottles, bags of dog toys, sweatshirts, pizza’s, a block of cheese, compass, stuffed moose and a bag of grass seed, just to name a few. Her role as the instigator of chases did not diminish as the sole pack member, now, it was the wolf care staff chasing her to retrieve the many items she took. It appeared that this was the most enjoyable part of the interaction for Lakota. Lakota was the instigator of many things, and taught us that the bottom of the rank order is just as important as the top. The wolf lab will never be the same without her. I posted a video on YouTube as a tribute to the job she did as an ambassador wolf, to see the video, follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIRNpz9IEUU