Shadow is maintaining his status well and while Grizzer has been observed in a few tests of Shadow's dominance, he has also been observed willingly submitting to Shadow. Shadow takes it all in stride and as the temperatures have moderated, he's been spending a lot of time instigating social play behavior within the pack. He's very dynamic when he starts these bouts. He will toss pieces of birchbark in the air, display a few play bows, run full force toward another wolf, only to leap away at the last second. These behaviors are a good indication of his confidence and overall compatibility with this pack. His video this week shows him watching the other wolves from the top of the den and showing his confidence as he goes to greet the pack.
As fall approaches, we are starting to see an increase in dominance and social interaction. The cooler weather is very stimulating. Another stimulus occurred on Sunday night. A large White Pine branch was blown off in a windstorm and landed on top of the sprinkler hose. The rest as they say, is history, so is the sprinkler hose. The wolves must have tugged on the accessible hose and pulled it apart. The two ends were hanging on the fence and the other end on the tree, but the remaining pieces were picked up in on Monday morning’s wolf check. There were several large pieces, and some smaller pieces with teeth marks, but it doesn’t appear that the hose was consumed, although I’m sure there was quite the tug-of-war displaying going. Grizzer attempted to tug at pieces when the wolf care staff cleaned up on Monday, but fortunately, they also ate a deer carcass on Sunday night, so he was too full to be any problem. In this week’s video, you see Grizzer panting after a chase around the den, as he stops to rest on top of the den.
Written by Nanny Team Members Tina and Ed Stimpson. Aidan showed no fear avoidance with the new male nannies. Aidan was active during the afternoon programs. Aidan chewed on a deer leg during the program. After eating in the evening, he was playful around the Wolf Yard. Aidan was chasing Denali and jumping on and off the picnic table. He spent a lot of time next to the fence interacting with the Exhibit Pack.
Written by program participant Jennifer Ekroos: Grizzer is into challenging and testing the artics every chance he can. He displays immature behavior for a grown up wolf. He seems to like attention on him and will take the necessrary steps to get it. He is holding his status so far! It is going to be a busy winter for Grizzer as he tries to gain hierarchy over Shadow.
Written by program participants Charlie and Sierra Stearns: On Saturday, while Shadow and Grizzer were involved in a dominance challenge, Malik circled around the enclosure in order to stay out of the fray. Throughout the weekend, Malik frequently came close to the observation windows and showed interest in the people inside the auditorium. Malik continues to aknowledge his lower status compared to Grizzer. He spent most of the weekend laying on the greeting rock as if "posing" for pictures.
In the past week’s we’ve been attempting to wean MacKenzie off of the anti-inflammatory to see how she is progressing without the medication. She had a slight relapse, losing some stability, so we are now back to a the maintenance dose that seems to be best suited for decreasing the stiffness and keeping her active. It is likely that she will need to maintain this maintenance dose for the rest of her life. We are encouraged by her improved attitude as her physical condition improves, and she continues to maintain dominance over Lakota as shown in the short stand over recorded for Lakota’s video clip.
Lakota is doing well; we received a recent email expressing concern that Lakota had died because a photo on the webcam stalled while she was sleeping in the sun. The camera was off for 2 days, showing her in the same position. We can assure you that while she likes to take naps in the sun, even on the hottest days, she is active and agile and wolf care staff check on her multiple times a day, in additon to a monitor in the building which is on during business hours. If you see an image that shows a wolf not moving, always check the date and time on the image to see if the camera has stalled. Power outages and mystery technology woes can affect the camera image. Because of Lakota's desire to sleep in the sun, the wolf care staff not only treat her facial growth with antibiotics, but also zinc oxide to reduce any sun sensitivity. Please be assured that if anything happens to Lakota or MacKenzie, we will post the news on the web logs, but today, the only news to report is that Lakota seems to be as spry as ever, MacKenzie on the other hand, is showing her age.
The text and video for the rest of the Exhibit Pack logs is all the same, when the temperatures increase, the wolves become less active. It has been a bit of a challenge to give visitors a good sighting of the wolves when daytime temperatures have increased over 80 degrees on a regular basis. The wolf care staff use a sprinkler system on both enclosures to decrease the ambient air temperature by several degrees. The wolves are also called down to the front of the exhibit 3 times a day to draw them into the sprinkler and get a physical check on them. The videos this week for Maya, Grizzer, Malik and Shadow all show a typical summer day for wolves, stay cool by finding a good piece of cool dirt in the shade.
Lakota's growth has started to really increase in size and after consultation with the vet, we have set a surgery date for September 10th. As you can see from Lakota's video, she is active and doesn't appear to have any physical effects from this benign growth, but we want to remove it and allow enough time for the hair to grow back before winter. We are giving it two more weeks to hopefully see a decline in growth before the surgery. Staff continue to clean the growth daily and apply antibiotics. She has completed the shedding of her winter hair and should have no problems with ambient temperature issues during the immobilization.
Malik is fairing well, although as the lowest ranking male it is likely that there will be some dominance focused on him as winter approaches. One such event occurred on Sunday morning. There was a short dominance display with Grizzer and Shadow pinning Malik, and following him in a fast gate around the pond. Following is an intimidation behavior that is quite effective. One of the Center staff created a distraction to stop the interaction, but it was likely the influence of the cooler mornings and a bit of anxiety about the deer carcass thawing in the wolf yard. There will be discussions on management options to increase the stimulus, and likely the feedings as winter approaches, which in turn may reduce the redirected aggression toward Malik. Grizzer consumes a lot of food and he gets excitable when he’s even the slightest bit hungry. Of course, we are concerned about his body weight, especially since his winter coat makes him appear so much larger, but with pups coming to the facility in the summer of 2008, he will likely wear off any excess fat from the winter.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.