malik – Feb 11, 2003 12:00 AM

Malik and Shadow have entered the season of dominance. Who's going to be the leader of their duo. There were no direct observations of their dominance, but you can hear them jaw sparring from the back of the enclosure. After they came to the front of the exhibit, Shadow was showing a raised tail, while Malik was showing a relaxed tail. Shadow then briefly was biting shrubs and small trees, generally something he does when he gets excited. Malik did a RLU (Raised Leg Urination as a sign of dominance), and then Shadow went to the same spot and did an RLU on top of Malik’s mark. This is something new, as Malik had been the only one demonstrating an RLU. Another new observation is that Shadow has been greeting at the same time Malik does, which up until a few weeks ago, Shadow would wait until Malik was done greeting, before he approached.