Oct. 31, 2019

Improvements continue

The construction work to improve the life of the retired wolves, the 2020 pups and the humans who spend many nights caring for them all continues.

Luna and Grizzer are tolerating the temporary change of routine and enjoyed watching the Working for Wolves crew install some snow and wind breaks in the adjacent transition area.

Luna has taken to lying on top of the back-habitat den, watching her surroundings from the higher vantage point.  Despite her cancer, she is still very alert, wants to interact with the wolf care staff and has a good appetite. She is now on anti-inflammatory medication, which has improved her mobility and overall comfort.

Grizzer seems to have a bit of a spring in his step and has been observed running excited circles around the back den. While age may have slowed him down physically, age hasn’t slowed him down mentally. Grizzer will be turning 15 ½ on Nov. 5. He only has a few weeks to go before taking over the record of the oldest wolf managed at the International Wolf Center.  This honor was previously held by Lakota – April 28, 1993 – Nov. 7, 2008.

Oct. 17, 2019

Fall has arrived with dynamic colors on the maple trees and some dynamic behavior from the young adults.  In this photo, Axel is doing a ride up on Denali with his tail extended above his back in what we term a T-1 tail.  At 11 years of age, Denali maintains a wide stance for support, but his wagging tail held in a relaxed position demonstrates the lack of concern about these interactions.  Grayson is coming around the tree in an intimidated ear posture called Ears Turned Sideways and Slanted Back or ETSB if you are familiar with our Ethogram codes.  Grayson’s expression is more of intimidation likely in response to his brother’s dominant posture.  Notice Boltz is not in the mix; he has been using the medical pen and den to avoid some conflict with Axel.  He’s still an active pack member, just a bit more cautious when Axel’s tail extends above the back.

Oct. 17, 2019

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Oct. 17, 2019

Luna’s challenges related to cancer are closely monitored

Management of the Retired Pack after Aidan’s loss is significantly different.  Aidan’s strong personality limited the number of handlers that interacted, impacting the dynamics of the social group.  Now, most handlers are interacting with Grizzer and Luna, giving them far more social time.  The time and staff are well needed as we manage Luna’s challenges from her cancer and try to monitor every nuance in Grizzer’s activity to identify any age-specific issues.  Luna is not only monitored by the Center’s surveillance cameras, we also have a ring camera that connects directly to the curator’s phone to assess how well she is resting in the transition area.  We are making some upgrades to retirement to protect the retired wolves from deep snow issues and improve overall monitoring opportunities for the upcoming winter.  With snow on the ground this weekend, improvements can’t come fast enough.

Oct. 17, 2019

Fall has arrived in Ely

Fall has arrived with dynamic colors on the maple trees and some dynamic behavior from the young adults.  In this photo, Axel is doing a ride up on Denali with his tail extended above his back in what we term a T-1 tail.  At 11 years of age, Denali maintains a wide stance for support, but his wagging tail held in a relaxed position demonstrates the lack of concern about these interactions.  Grayson is coming around the tree in an intimidated ear posture called Ears Turned Sideways and Slanted Back or ETSB if you are familiar with our Ethogram codes.  Grayson’s expression is more of intimidation likely in response to his brother’s dominant posture.  Notice Boltz is not in the mix; he has been using the medical pen and den to avoid some conflict with Axel.  He’s still an active pack member, just a bit more cautious when Axel’s tail extends above the back.

Aidan – 4/27/08 – 8/14/2019

We acquired Aidan and Denali from the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake Minnesota as 12 day old pups and began the process of socialization that allowed us to experience one of the most incredible and complex individuals in my 30+ year captive wolf career.   Aidan passed away on Wednesday, August 14th at 11 am.  We are still awaiting the necropsy report and hope to learn more about his condition to help us understand what happened and to evaluate all of his medical history and various medical decisions made on his behalf.  The more we can learn, the better we can manage the remaining ambassador wolves, especially Aidan’s brother Denali.  This photo was of the first night in Ely after returning from the Science Center.  He spent the night on our Assistant Wolf Curator’s carhart coat. 

 

 

Denali – A Howl Results in a Rally

Denali requires daily anti-histamines, two in the morning, one at night.  He has a small growth similar to the start of Aidan’s mast cell issues.  The growth remains the size of a pea, and has not changed in over a year, but to be on the safe side, the antihistamines are prescribed to keep the mast cells in check.  In the last few days, cooler nights have prompted a bit more excitement in the pack.  Some competition over food led to some dominance from Axel over Denali and prompted the addition of an anti-inflammatory to reduce some of the pain from an over active pack life.  We are very mindful of Denali’s aging body and are making plans for his retirement, but his mind still has him howling with the young ones, so for now, he’s an Exhibit Pack member. 

Grayson – Response to External Influences

Grayson continues to be the wolf that responds to external influences such as backhoe work around the site (yes, the new fiber optic line is being dug this week.. maybe a return of the retired camera broadcast next week?).  We did have  break through this week.  For years, Grizzer has been bark-howling at the vets when they come on site for medical checks. As you can imagine, this past month has had a lot of visits to help Luna (and now Aidan), to heal from the various medical issues.  Grayson, hearing Grizzer bark howl, would join in and even started a few bark howling sessions at the vet before Grizzer even figured out they were on site.  This is an obvious concern because bark-howling is a warning sign to other pack members and we certainly didn’t want a vet visit to be a negative thing.  On Tuesday nights vet check with Aidan, Grizzer actually approached the vet, sniffed and licked her hand and never let out a single howl.  Fortunately, Grayson didn’t either and Aidan had a good check, while the respective packs remained calm.  Positive and negative conditioning are issues we deal with on a daily basis.  To learn more about conditioning, Join us for Wednesday, August 14th at 7 pm Central Time for the Wolf Care, Positive Conditioning Webinar – we will share news on Luna and Aidan’s medical condition an have a special guest join us for some tips on positive conditioning for our 2020 pups.  Follow this link to register.   https://wolf.org/programs/webinars

Axel – Spring in his Step and his Tail

Axel has been posturing over all of his pack members as the cooler weather is giving us a glimpse of fall conditions.  We are watching this closely, as Denali seems to get the most focus, followed by Grayson.  Boltz will usually try to block Axel from interacting with Denali, but until the summer season ends, the insect phobia is keeping Boltz on the fringe of pack dynamics.  This is likely why Axel has gained so much confidence, but this is Ely, Minnesota, winter is definitely going to be here sooner than later, that’s a factor we can guarantee. 

Luna – Healing, but watching for decline

With a prognosis of a Spindle Cell Sarcoma, we know that our time with Luna is limited.  The fact is, most canines don’t live long enough in comparisons to their humans.  But, we are realistic that changes can happen quickly, so we need to make each day important for her interactions. Our goal for Luna is to heal the incision, get her on a comfortable routine of feeding, social visits and taking medications to make her comfortable and reunite her with her retired pack mates.  We use the canine stress dictionary to help staff define her behavior.  We have definitely witnessed an increase in displacement behaviors, like branch-chewing and know that stress can impact healing. The photo for the log was taken by Katelyn Schwab, who was assisting in the lab monitoring Luna’s behavior to some ongoing work in the wolf yard.