malik – Oct 6, 2006 12:00 AM

Sorry for the delay in the logs, Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt was in Anchorage Alaska last week for the Wildlife Society National Meeting and general wolf care was the main priority in her absence. As fall approaches, hormonal changes result in increased dominance activity between wolves. This is very common behavior, and is termed ritualized dominance behavior. Biologist believe that this type of dominance behavior actually reduces more intensive fights among wolves for rank order position. At the Center, Malik has been looking for opportunities to increase his rank by testing Shadow. This is normal behavior for a second ranking wolf, but what's unique about Malik is that he's not very confident when he starts some action. He tends to start a growling behavior with full hackles, then makes a run for the top of the enclosure and crosses the pond log, looking to see if he's being followed. One thing for sure, Malik gets his exercise.