The pack has had a quiet week, so there's not much news to report and all logs will be the same. The Center is moving forward on an additional habitat for Grizzer with a design that will allow continued access to the current pack holding area. He has become quite comfortable in this area and its' location is right in the Center of Wolf Lab activity which seems to be of interest to Grizzer. This is a bit reminiscent of Lakota.

Denali has definitely returned to his high energy, rousing and sometimes over excited behavior. He often wrestles, and bounds after any object that moves. The spring migration of song birds has been keeping him stimulated, and Aidan is the frequent recipient of Denali’s energy. This may be why Aidan has been a bit more subdued, the constant wrestling of a littermate may make anyone tired. Denali has a strong interest in investigating the many objects coming out of the snow banks. The Youtube footage this week shows him finding an old deer hide in the melt water of the pond. The wolf care staff (and Working for Wolves Participants) have a busy spring trying to clean up all the straw. When there’s a winter with this much snow, there are bound to be layers and layers of material that needs to be removed.

Grizzer has been very playful this past week. He really seems to enjoy fresh snowfall and does a behavior called a snowplow. Basically a snowplow is putting one's nose to the ground and pushing snow (sometimes they have their front legs down and are walking with their back legs), sometimes, as in Grizzer's case, they are pushing snow while on their backs. Grizzer almost looks like he's making snow angels. We also see a lot of playbows and chases with wolf care staff (no, we don't chase, but Grizzer invites a chase by running around the enclosure). We are moving forward with an increase to his habitat. A tree removal company will be starting the process of hazard tree removal in the new fence line area and then fence construction will begin.

Shadow continues to eat chicken, but he's not been very good at taking his vitamins and joint supplements. We may need to try a different method of delivery (Aidan's been liking peanut butter lately). We also have observed some increase in water consumption and while we don't watch the wolves continuously, when we do observe, it appears that Shadow has the higher volume of water consumption. These are the subtle changes that have to be noted when going into a medical exam. Due to the fact that we can't draw blood without immobilizing, we want to make sure we test for all possibilities.

We had some trees felled for Grizzer's new habitat and some of the branches landed in the Exhibit area. Aidan really likes fresh pine boughs and spent a lot of time rolling in them. Of course, this means we will need to do some pitch removal on his coat.

Grizzer has been howling less, and directing his howl towards the Retired Pack more than the Exhibit Pack. He's been resting more often when staff arrive, often laying in the straw bed and only getting up to stretch when they have his meds ready. We are trying a few different distractions for him. One of the staff donated a food ball (formerly used by a Pot bellied Pig), which has an opening to fill it with kibble, as the ball rolls, the kibble is suppose to come out. Grizzer rolled it around a bit when he first received it (this is in the Youtube clip this week), but he lost interest, and hasn't used it much since. We have to be very cautious on any dog toys that are used, we can't have any product that he could chew and consume.

Grizzer has had great improvements this week. He is howling less with the exception of some howls when wolf care staff leave his enclosure. He started playbowing behavior towards staff, followed by a chase around the enclosure. He is getting daily treatments on his head to keep it clean and to help the healing process. The areas where the new hair is growing seem to itch the most, and he often lays in the straw bed after treatment letting the wolf care staff scratch his head.

Malik's abcess healed well, and he has no problem feeding on carcasses. Last weekend's beaver feeding was a feast for Malik, as he appeared to eat both carcasses. Shadow's been a bit off lately, but he has started to feel better this week. Chicken is still offered several times a week, and even though Malik eats the bulk of the food, he's always in line for more.

Personalities can vary and Denali is proof of that. Aidan is much more stoic and doesn't often let loose and race around the enclosure. Denali, on the other hand, seems easily bored and needs distractions. We did receive a comment on one of the Youtube posting that suggested that we couldn't analyze captive behavior because they were captive and prone to boredom. No doubt, that's a challenge for captive managers to provide a stimulating environment, but the behavior I see in Denali is similar to behaviors I observed in video footage of young adults in Yellowstone. When I teach Ethology, I require students to observe wild wolf footage first before observing captive footage. The reason is to provide a good background to the functional nature of that behavior, but this exercise also reveals similarities in captivity that indicate instinctual behavior. Captive wolves do display wolf behavior, and I hope people respect captive wolves and learn from their behavioral observations as ambassadors for wild wolves.

Denali has been exceptionally active lately, having some great chase behavior with Aidan as well as doing some shallow pond swimming. They are easily stimulated into social behavior. Now that the wolves have started to shed, Denali's long, tall appearance is exaggerated.