Grizzer was the most anxious about the Working for Wolves crew but he'[s benefiting form the work. Clearing the branches and hazards in this enclosure is important because we also use the front area of Grizzer's enclosure for holding the pups for various circumstances. One such event will happen tomorrow, when we are holding Luna and Boltz for a 24 hour period. We need blood work on Luna with a 24 hour fasting sample. She will be more relaxed in a bigger area, and will be more relaxed with Boltz staying in the holding pen. This means Grizzer will have to stay in the back half of his enclosure for a day, but the stimulus of the pups close by and the fact that staff will be on site all night will give Grizzer a lot of distractions. We did have one observation today of Grizzer and Oscar. The two diverse pack mates were doing their typical jaw spar at the front panel (thank to the WFW crew, great repair job).. Grizzer was rolling over for Oscar, then he sprung up to do an invite chase, looking back at Oscar who was on the other side of the panel. He came back several times and seemed to want Oscar to follow through with a chase. We think it would be risky for Oscar to be in with Grizzer and don't intend to let these two meet without a protective barrier, but it sure seems like Grizzer would like to spend some time with Oscar.
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Shadow seemed a bit off today. We had indications that something had changed in this pack based on Grizzer's response before we even entered retirement. When we did our morning wolf check, we watched Malik with some very high tail responses and noticed that Shadow just didn't display his normal behavior. We noticed when we were filming for Youtube that he had 3 or 4 single coughs, which could just be a response to environmental conditions or could be something more serious. We will watch him closely over the weekend and see if there's any pattern or change in his behavior.
Grizzer's new enclosure design worked perfectly for our recent need to hold Luna for a 24 hour fasting sample. Grizzer willingly went in the back half of the enclosure (with a beaver and 15 lbs of bone dust) and quietly remained in the back while staff stayed with Luna to try to keep her calm. By 9 am on Saturday morning, the blood sample was taken, Luna was back in the pack and Grizzer had a significant amount of smells to investigate as well as a 1/2 bale of straw used to keep Luna warm. He seemed to enjoy the return trip back into his enclosure.
We wanted to clarify some readings from an earlier blood test and needed to have a blood sample from Luna without the influence of food. This is easier said than done with an Exhibit full of caches. So, on Friday morning at 9 am, we brought both pups into the front of Grizzer's enclosure and moved Grizzer back to the new habitat. We ideally would have liked to have a base-line sample on Boltz, but about 4 hours into the holding, Boltz became too stressed and he and Luna had several intense jaw spar/pinning session. We didn't want to risk any issues with Luna, so we allowed Boltz to rejoin the pack. Luna was anxious without the pack, but staff worked through the night to make sure she was as calm as possible. This 24-hour holding demonstrated the strength of these pack bonds and the challenges that exist when removing one pack member. Fortunately, the blood draw was smooth and Luna was back in the pack by 10 am Saturday with no negative response by the other wolves. Aidan and Boltz both spent time greeting Luna and resting wth Luna later in the day. The blood draw results are not back yet, we are primarily concerned with a higher level of ionized calcium than is typical with dogs. Of course, these are wolves, which is why we wanted to get a sample on Boltz, to see what does ionized calcium look like in wolves when they both eat bone a regular part of the diet. Luna continues to be the most active wolf during a feeding and has been a more active player in helping Aidan show rank order over Denali.
Malik still shows some signs of testing Shadow, but this week's footage for Youtube shows Shadow in some more active dominance. The video shows what we describe as a play bow, but it is short and a bit anxious, and doesn't result in the typical invite chase behavior that we usually see. In this week's photo's between the two wolves, we see Malik averting gaze in one photo and Shadow averting gaze in another photo. It appears that Shadow is working his way back up to being in control of retirement.
Malik has been getting involved in the daily chases throughout the enclosure, but he’s careful to stay behind the crowd instead of in front of them. He’s been very relaxed with the wolf care staff lately, generally an indication that he’s not too stressed about the dominance throughout the exhibit. Malik’s video shows this relaxed body posture.
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. The logs today will feature the reactions of each individual wolf. As we expected, Aidan showed some anxiety when we transported Luna to the Ely Vet Clinic and when she was in the medical pen coming out of the immobilization drugs. When she returned, he sniffed the areas that had some foreign sent, but resumed guarding her and had some food interactions, ultimately bringing her a deer leg.
Luna's weight was recorded on the 26th of October, we expect that she may be nearing 70 lbs by the end of this week (we typically weigh on Friday's). We received the vitamin D test results and her levels of D are up to 117, which is an improvement from 78 at the end of July. The U of MN consult raised some concerns about the hardware in her leg and we are discussing the management implications of taking action during this time of the year when wolf intensity is increasing. A long separation for recovery is much harder in winter than in summer, but we don't want Luna to have any issues and discomfort. At this point, we are watching her every movement. As the video shows, she is an active pups who is strongly stimulated by the actions of the other wolves and often instigates issues.
We have observed an increase in Malik's dominance towards Shadow. His confidence is typically increased when temperatures decrease. Shadow seems to take it in stride, and an assertive chin rest gets the results that he needs. Malik seems to be the one most likely to watch and sometimes stalk ravens that attempt to scavenge on his food.
Maya has been very submissive lately, the dominance towards Shadow seems to be affecting her. She is still very social with Grizzer and begins several bouts of chase with him, but if Shadow is getting some dominance from Grizzer, she runs to him and shows a very submissive posture, licking the sides of his face and whining. Last weekend, Shadow, Grizzer and Maya displayed a strong social behavior in front of the viewing windows, rolling around on the ground, jumping up and playbowing to each other and greeting each other on the muzzle. In this week's video, Maya is uncomfortable with the strong wind that accompanied the snows. So is the person filming, as you can see by the shaky video.
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