We are featuring a lot of footage on Youtube showing Luna eating but that's because we're focusing a lot of energy on getting Luna to feed. We want to continue to give her as many resources as possible to develop into a strong adult. We know she has the attitude to defend food, so getting Luna to eat is just a matter of opening the gate and hoping she's hungry.
Archives
Grizzer has been in an unusually playful mood, doing playbows to staff and inviting chase. Of course, it's Center policy that we don't run with or around the wolves as it stimulates a predatory response, but it was enjoyable to be part of the one way chase. Grizzer would playbow, run to the back of the enclosure, come back and playbow again, repeating the chase. He does this to Oscar as well, but it's through the fence. After a 30 minute session, he curls up in his straw bed and takes a relaxing rest. But, if Shadow and Malik start a chase scene, Grizzer is right at the gate in a T2 aggressive tail towards Malik. This reinforces our decision to keep Grizzer and Malik separated.
Shadow got the chase back to his invite chase behavior. In previous Youtube video clips, Shadow and Malik would do a quick play bow, spring up at each other, which is usually the start of a behavior we call "Invite Chase". But, the chase piece has been missing. Originally we thought it was because of their age, but after Malik's latest antics, we don't think that was the issue. During wolf care on Thursday, Shadow got his chase back. We watched the similar playbow behaviors, but this time, Shadow took off in a full race around the enclosure, followed by Malik. They didn't act like wolves approaching 13, more like young pups. We think the lack of chase may have been an indication of a overall period when Shadow wasn't feeling well, but he seems to be feeling fine now.
Other than Boltz getting some life lessons from Aidan, we have observed some good social behavior between Luna and Boltz, especially when it's been below zero. The pups are curling up together and Boltz even let Luna use his tail to cover her nose. Although, Luna doesn't always reciprocate when it comes to sharing of food, Boltz is still a bit timid when Luna is possessive.
Malik seems a bit indifferent about the pups. While Shadow and Maya are clearly social, licking, smelling, whining at the pups through the fence when wolf care staff work on the socialization process, Malik is going about his business and approaches the pups at the fence, but doesn’t have the same response as the other pack members. This isn’t unusual, it was Shadow who took the lead role in the 2004 pup introduction, but it does impact how the introduction will be structured. Malik and Grizzer have very few dominance issues these days, it might be higher levels of Prolactin stimulated by the pups or it might be the approaching summer season, regardless, it’s very quiet here.
Sorry for the break between log postings, I should be back on a regular schedule now. In the last few postings we've been referencing some cold weather limping on Luna. After consultation with the University of Minnesota, we decided to get an x-ray on Luna. We are waiting for a complete report from the U of Minnesota to determine if there are further issues with the hardware. We should know more next week. Luna did extremely well throughout the immobilization, transport and recovery. We started the process by 8 am and by noon she was resting comfortably on her dog bed and blanket. We fed her a deer leg prior to releasing her to give her some meat in her stomach and to give her the opportunity to eat without competition. Despite some manipulation of her leg during the x-rays, she was actively running with the pack by dark and showed no ill effects from the exam.
It seems to pack order of Shadow being more dominant over Malik has returned. We see the signs of Malik's ear postures, tail postures and Shadow's pattern of chin rests. This is for the best as the pack seems more calm with Shadow in charge. Malik has a different energy and when Malik is showing dominance, Grizzer's posturing at the gate intensifies. When Shadow is in the lead, he has a calm presence that makes all the wolves relaxed.
Shadow is really back to feeling good. We can tell by his alert behavior, the clarity of his eyes, the intensity of his greetings with staff and the chin rest behaviors. It's good to see Shadow back to his regular behavior, he really does have a calming influence on all the wolves.
When we look at social alliances, we just don't see Denali displaying anything similar to Aidan. That's not to say the Denali doesn't interact with the pups, he's always near them (especially if there's food), but it's not the same. It appears more antagonistic including behaviors such as jaw sparring, wrestling and chasing rather than socially greeting. These alliances at this age can dictate the testing behavior as the pups mature. Denali may already have a plan, he's been spending a lot of time on the raven rock, which is a double stacked rock that Luna doesn't climb. He might experience the pup's maturity from the safety of a high vantage point.
Boltz is certainly gaining some status thanks to Aidan. When Aidan wants social contact, he rolls over and lets the pups climb on him and Boltz has been taking it one step farther with ride-up behavior. We still have timid moments when feeding; Boltz either drops his food or steps away from the food if Denali or Aidan are nearby. Denali even take is from his mouth, so it's important that staff stays close to Boltz when feeding to block some of the other wolves. We have noticed that Boltz is even becoming more timid with Luna, but that's probably related to Luna lunging at Boltz, everyone is timid of Luna when she's feeding.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.