Shadow has always deserved our respect as the pack leader and a complex and sometimes challenging wolf. On Friday, he gained a bit more respect and made the staff wonder about behavioral motivation. After Malik did the 2nd hair band removal from the Curator, Shadow approached Malik, did a stand over threat display, Malik dropped the band, Shadow picked it up and allowed the Curator to retrieve it. Was this just something that Shadow wanted or did he just see Malik having an increase in status because he was excited to have it and that warranted some dominance. Or, did he get it back for the Curator… who knows, but it is fun to observe and ponder, unless you're the one getting your hair pulled.
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Boltz has been doing some active ride up behaviors towards Aidan, but as soon as Aidan gets serious, he submits. It's nice to see Boltz gain some confidence and we certainly wonder how long Aidan will allow him to climb all over him without some limits. We do see Boltz and Denali pairing up a bit, and sometimes it's against Luna. The good thing for Luna is that Aidan doesn't tolerate much rough housing from Denali towards the pups, so he usually intervenes if Denali is too physical.
Shadow feels great and we see the response in not only how he interacts with staff, but the play bow invite chase behavior now has the chase. In previous Youtube clips you saw the spring to the ground but no chase behavior because it appeared that neither one wanted to be chased. Now, with Shadow's confidence up, he does a playbow, but this time takes off to do a loop to the back of the enclosure. When you're confident, it doesn't matter who chases you.
We captured some great video footage of the Aidan as a confident pack leader. No, the video doesn't show him hard muzzle biting the pups or pushing his status on them. The video shows a truly confident animal that is relaxed and not concerned about rolling over on his back and letting the pups have a bit of social grooming. If a pack leader is really confident, they're not intimidated to have these social moments. Shadow displayed this same behavior and we are so impressed to see Aidan in similar behavioral displays. We are so fortunate to work with such uniquely independent personalities that blend into a very cohesive pack.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
Denali may want to review footage from the Grizzer years. Grizzer used to let the 2008 pups climb all over him and showed limited dominance, then Denali and Aidan turned two and Grizzer had a lot of testing. So, 4 years later, Denali is doing the same thing as Grizzer. We'll wait and see if Boltz will find an opportunity to move up in rank or if Boltz's calmer and more timid personality will reduce his tendency to climb rank as a maturing adult. For now, Denali is taller than all the other wolves which gives him an advantage and he can climb the double stacked raven rock, which is out of reach for Luna.
Malik seems to be backing off on his testing behavior which probably means that Shadow is back to displaying a more dominant role. We don't have much more to add about the retired wolves this week except that we had some good howling footage from Malik as well as Shadow.
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