One point we would like to make about Maya, even though we dominate the logs with talk of her dominance, she is not an aggressive wolf, just a wolf focused on showing Aidan his place in the pack. It is more likely due to Aidan's nervous behavior being viewed as a weakness, than Maya being aggressive. She is still the same timid, high pitched-whine at the fence towards staff wolf that she has been as a pup. It is critical to understand wolf behavior, not apply human emotions and appreciate the value of these behaviors when it applies to survival in the wild.
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To say that Grizzer is getting attention from all sides would be an understatement. Shadow's dominating with more intensity, possibly due to a compensation for his age and naturally declining physical condition as a 10-year old, or in response to the construction, which has Shadow on edge. Regardless of the reason, Shadow is very dominant over Grizzer, Denali sees this as an opportunity to try out his testing skills, and Malik is an opportunist. Maya occasionally shows her status to Grizzer in a passing growl, or with a lunge jump to Grizzer's head. The only pack mate that doesn't try to assert dominance is Aidan, who's a bit busy with Maya to climb rank. It's a good thing that Grizzer is such a calm personality. He submits readily to Shadow, chases Malik when he's had enough, is starting to pin Denali, ignores Maya and serves as a reassurance to Aidan.
Maya has been spending some time showing Denali that his juvenile behavior is not going to be accepted by the dominant female. This certainly gives Aidan a break, as Denali needs a lot of lessons. The fall migration of songbirds has started, and unfortunately for the songbirds, their stop in the wolf enclosure may be the end of their migration. Maya is very quick to stalk and spring on birds, and the daily scat collection has already revealed some evidence of this predatory behavior. Maya's video this week shows her consuming a beaver, the pack is still on a twice a week feeding to ensure that every wolf gets an adequate amount of food. Maya has no problem possessing, guarding, or marking food possessions.
Due to the fact that we're a bit short staffed, and it's been a busy weekend with the Alpha Member's/Board Meeting weekend, we will be posting the same log for all wolves. The video this week will be featured on the International Wolf Center's YouTube video channel, and will include a video on the factors we monitor when deciding a wolf needs to be retired, and a feeding program that we did without public viewing. Usually, when we feed, the public is on site with people at the windows. Shadow is a bit shy about feeding in front of people and cameras. On Tuesday night, September 8th, the Vermilion Community College Wolf/Deer Interaction class did a deer dissection, and Curator, Lori Schmidt fed the torso after everyone had left the site. Shadow was the actively feeding the entire time, and was very dominant on the carcass. All wolves are doing well, although this unexpected 80 degree weather in September has been keeping the wolves calm. They have grown in their winter coat, and are adapting to the heat by staying down for most of the day.
Due to the fact that we're a bit short staffed, and it's been a busy weekend with the Alpha Member's/Board Meeting weekend, we will be posting the same log for all wolves. The video this week will be featured on the International Wolf Center's YouTube video channel, and will include a video on the factors we monitor when deciding a wolf needs to be retired, and a feeding program that we did without public viewing. Usually, when we feed, the public is on site with people at the windows. Shadow is a bit shy about feeding in front of people and cameras. On Tuesday night, September 8th, the Vermilion Community College Wolf/Deer Interaction class did a deer dissection, and Curator, Lori Schmidt fed the torso after everyone had left the site. Shadow was the actively feeding the entire time, and was very dominant on the carcass. All wolves are doing well, although this unexpected 80 degree weather in September has been keeping the wolves calm. They have grown in their winter coat, and are adapting to the heat by staying down for most of the day.
Due to the fact that we're a bit short staffed, and it's been a busy weekend with the Alpha Member's/Board Meeting weekend, we will be posting the same log for all wolves. The video this week will be featured on the International Wolf Center's YouTube video channel, and will include a video on the factors we monitor when deciding a wolf needs to be retired, and a feeding program that we did without public viewing. Usually, when we feed, the public is on site with people at the windows. Shadow is a bit shy about feeding in front of people and cameras. On Tuesday night, September 8th, the Vermilion Community College Wolf/Deer Interaction class did a deer dissection, and Curator, Lori Schmidt fed the torso after everyone had left the site. Shadow was the actively feeding the entire time, and was very dominant on the carcass. All wolves are doing well, although this unexpected 80 degree weather in September has been keeping the wolves calm. They have grown in their winter coat, and are adapting to the heat by staying down for most of the day.
Shadow continues to be a strong pack leader, observing all of the pack interactions, and participating in those that warrant some dominance. He is a good indicator of the tension in the pack. If Shadow's not reacting to noisy interactions, then they are probably not too serious. If Shadow gets involved, the staff need to take notice, and determine what incident influenced the change in dynamics.
Aidan was observed socially interacting with Maya prior to the last feeding, this included behaviors of submissive pawing to her, jumping up on her and generally wanting to greet her. Maya was doing a playbow, lowering herself on her front legs to spring up in greeting. This relationship continues to have extremes of dominance and social behavior, but it is clear that Aidan respects Maya's position and follows her lead. Of course, Aidan still has littermate interactions with Denali, who is testing everything and everyone in his world.
Denali has been testing every pack mate in the exhibit. He follows behind wolves and gives them a foreleg stab, poking at them until he gets a response. If Shadow is dominating Grizzer, he does a ride up or scruff bite behavior. He prances and stimulates chase behavior and is quick to guard a food cache, or any object that is near his face. All in all, he's a typical yearling, and the behavior of the wolves is to ignore him, until he's too much, and then deal with him. Grizzer has recently started rolling him over and doing a neck pin, holding Denali to the ground until he submits, but usually, he just springs back up again. Aidan has been observed trying to squash Denali as a method of dominance. This scenario can be viewed in Denali and Aidan's video this week.
As the last YouTube video highlighted, staff are actively looking for signs that Malik wants to be retired out of the pack. At this point, we're not seeing any signs of isolationism, intimidation, tucked tail or harassment directed at Malik. We're seeing Malik take advantage of Grizzer and Grizzer responding, but at this point, Shadow's been so dominant on Grizzer that Malik has been gaining status and is frequently in a high tail. One thing is for sure, if Shadow needs to be retired, Malik will need to go with him, as Shadow is Malik's source of confidence.
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