There are times when we have to look closely to identify Boltz versus Aidan when they come out of the woods. There's no mistaking Denali, the long legs are a definite Denali trait, but Boltz is really developing well. Boltz continues to be submissive, and he is clearly intimidated when Aidan and Denali show dominance towards each other. We've had some challenges feeding Boltz, even if he's hungry, he doesn't defend food well and will back away if Denali is excited. We've resolved this issue by locking Denali up into holding, or our first priority, getting both pups into the medical pen. Of course, this means Luna would need to come in as well, and that can be a challenge. Luna does what Luna likes when Luna wants… Boltz readily comes into holding and sees it as a relaxing place to escape the heat.
This week's Youtube shows Grizzer in one of his more relaxed poses. Of all the wolves here, he has more opportunity for full body massages since there are no other wolves to vie for attention. While he is shy and doesn't show this side to visitors to the wolf yard, I hope the Youtube video shows how peaceful life can be for him with the wolf care staff.
At some point, humans should have the capacity to learn and retain information. Well, I proved that theory wrong today. For the 5th time this summer, Malik managed to steal the sponge from my hands when I was cleaning their water container. Guard your possession or lose it is the lesson. I guess wolves are better adapted to learned behavior than curators.
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.
Grizzer continues to use the den for a high vantage point. Some gravel was hauled in today after a summer of digging and scraping reduced most of the cushioning on the den. Grizzer has a full winter coat, but we noticed he as a scrape on the top of his head, most likely caused by Grizzer's tendency to crawl through brush and drag logs and trees around. We're treating it with an antibiotic cream, otherwise, eveything looks good.
Luna also seems to have spring fever, and probably feels much better in the warmer weather. She had no problem running at a full gate up the hill to defend a cache from Denali. We had a computer failure on the Exhibit Cam computer, but I will work through the weekend to try to get an alternative camera.
We always know when Shadow is feeling good, he has 3 main behaviors that he displays, Ears Pricked Forward (alert), chin rest and invite chase. All three of these are featured in the Youtube video this week. Staff always get a strong social greeting from Shadow and can pick up on his physical and mental state instantly.
The arctics have been spending a lot of time sleeping on the den together. This may be out of necessity rather than brotherly bonding, the snow is deep with a lot of slush and standing water making the den the few high and dry spots in the enclosure.
Luna weighed in over 60 lbs this morning. Her appetite has increased and we are hoping to see her continue to gain. Luna has some good footage on Youtube this week guarding a cache. She's so vocal about cache's that it draws the interest or every wolf, making it more challenging for her to defend. She's becoming more of a challenge to give her the daily supplement, which requires wolf care to become far more creative.
The focus on the pups has had an impact on the Retired Pack. We certainly don't spend as much time with them as we did prior to the pups. When this happens, we usually see an increase in Malik taking things from staff. This past week was a great example as he took a bag of wood chips, brush, coat and feeding bowl. Of course this is my fault as I left all of these items unattended for a split second. Malik seems to enjoy the focus of our efforts to retrieve the items. We should be back to normal with the pups transitioning into the Exhibit. We continue to use sprinkler hoses on the Retired Pack and this week's photo of Malik shows him soaking wet, but cool on an 85 degree day.
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