malik – Mar 22, 2013 12:00 AM

I'm sure I've covered this before, but it's worth mentioning again. Food possession in wolves is not necessarily tied to rank order. In the Retired Pack, Shadow is clearly dominant by the chin rests, tail postures, stance and direct eye contact that is displayed towards Malik. But, if there's food, Malik is far more active in guarding and food threat behavior. This occurred earlier in the week when we were feeding some chickens. Malik attempts to take all of them and keep Shadow away. I did have to do a stand over some chickens to allow Shadow time to gain possession. For some reason, Shadow doesn't assert himself over food and Malik takes advantage of this. I normally don't interfere with rank or feeding issues, but when there's smaller quantities, it's my job to make sure they get enough.