maya – Dec 13, 2004 12:00 AM

Maya is the most interesting pup for wolf care staff to work with. Our initial reading of her submissive behavior led us to believe that she would assume the lower ranking role without question. Were we wrong; Maya is very adept at making her presence and status known to Nyssa. The most interesting observation to note during these dominance displays is the tail postures. Maya not only holds her tail high, she also has a slight wag of excited stimulus and actually looks like the dominance behavior toward Nyssa has a social greeting component. The other wolves see that and are encouraged to display social behavior towards Maya. Nyssa usually has a stiff body posture, looking intimidated. Shadow continues to favor Maya in these situations. Usually, when the females are dominanting each other, the males tend to keep their distance. Except Grizzer, who has been observed trying to roll over on the females, getting their attention for a few moments.