You may have noticed Shadow is spending a lot of time on top of the den even when it's sunny. We do worry about him overheating, but with their white coats, they don't get as warm as Luna does when she lies in the sun. As long as the humidity is low, the wolves seem to tolerate the sun and it may even feel good on older bones.
Shadow's feeling good, probably due to cooler weather. The growth that we had tested last month has returned, but it is staying much smaller than before. We continue to monitor this, but it appears to cause him minimal discomfort. Shadow's always in a good mood when the weather turns cooler.
Luna continues to challenge our staff on new and innovative ways to deliver 40 grams of nutritional supplement. At this point, the new protocol includes offering her a tray of meat varieties to see what she's willing to eat on a given day, then once she's committed to eating, the supplement is hidden in several meatballs. Patience and time are the requirement for this job. Luna continues to enjoy the larger carcass feedings on Saturday night as well as a mid-week feeding of beaver or moose heads. We have been a bit challenged in the recent heat spell, with the growth of her winter pelage, the black color phase definitely heats up faster than the other wolves. Luna took her first swim in the pond, which is good for cooler as well as muscle development. She is gaining weight, but definitely slowed down when temperatures reached the high 80's again. Luna is far more active in both feeding and interactions on cooler days.
Denali's been the lower ranking wolf since he was a pup and he seems to willingly accept Luna's dominance. Fortunately for Luna, Denali is a mild mannered subordinate, since he probably weighs 50 pounds more than Luna. We should have up to date weights on the wolves early next week.
There is no doubt that Luna has become conditioned to avoid nutritional supplements, which makes the twice daily treatments a challenge. But, we have to remember, the challenges of getting Luna to a healthy adult size in the next 3 months are critical to her having a healthy adult life for the next 14 years. Late nights and long shifts are worth it. As you can see from her weight, she has gained and we would be extremely happy if she were to continue this growth pattern. Luna continues to develop a strong predatory drive and is active with carcass feedings and pack rallies, especially led by Aidan.
In the interest of getting logs posted tonight, I’m copying the same text. The priorities in my job include pup feeding time. We have a short period of time to maximize growth and get Luna and Boltz the resources necessary to prepare for a Northern Minnesota winter. Feedings require time, patience and some ingenuity. As I write this, I just finished a successful pup feeding with Luna eating over a pound of venison and another ½ pound of chicken. It was not quite as successful with Boltz, but he was caching everything I offered, so he must have been full. Boltz does utilize the remaining carcasses from previous feedings and his scats are dark, indicating meat consumption. Aidan has had some tremendous social bonding behavior with Luna, unfortunately, I didn’t get it on tape. With cooler weather stimulating hormones, we are bound to see more. Grizzer is the beneficiary of most of the pups left overs. He does enjoy that part of wolf care. Shadow and Malik continue to posture with Shadow more dominant, but they don’t have any issues when it comes to sharing the den in a rainstorm. Thanks for checking in, I hope to have more time next week to give a more complete update of each wolf. We have started to increase the feedings or all the retirees, and are in need of some pigs ears to serve as distractions as the pups continue to be the focus of the staff.
This is the first week that we've noticed a return to some of the stand off behaviors between the arctics. This means that Shadow approaches to do a chin rest and Malik resists and continues to turn to face off Shadow. When we see this behavior, it's a pretty good indication that we are having some hormonal stimulus. The good thing is that Malik still averts Shadow's direct eye contact. When Malik starts to return eye contact, it can get pretty noisy in retirement. These two twelve year old wolves certainly have a lot of spunk and good interactions.
Observations from the Working for Wolves participants:br> Luna and Boltz were down for a snooze after wrestling with the moose hide. They are bedded down on the straw near the building wall. Aidan checks on them and then goes to the moose hide displaying a lot of scent rolling. When Aidan starts pulling on the moose hide, Luna gets up a (little stiff) and joins Aidan and eventually Denali. The adults back off the hide and Luna wings again. Within an hour, Luna retreats to the main den, but by 1:30 am, both pups move to the straw by the eaves, and rest comfortably there until 6 am.
When we came in for wolf care this morning, we knew something was different in retirement. Grizzer was posturing towards the retired enclosure with a t-2 tail showing heightened intensity. When we went in Shadow greeted, but we watched Malik do some T-2 and T-1 tail posturing. Shadow responded with some dominance which we filmed for the Youtube video, but we also noticed some coughing. It may have been some dusty straw or we may have something more serious. We will be watching Shadow closely throughout the weekend, but it was apparent that Malik had gained some status and Grizzer wanted to do something about it. This is why Grizzer is a neighbor and not a pack mate.
Shadow is clearly feeling better. Not only is wolf care staff getting a full face greeting (a bit much when it's below freezing), but he's put the chase back into the invite chase behavior. These wolves are like no other retired wolves in our history. They run faster and spring higher than most of the young wolves on the Exhibit and compared to the days of MacKenzie, Lucas and Lakota, they expend far more energy in daily interactions.
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