In this week’s video, Grizzer has been showing an increased intensity and attitude. This is common with a wolf that is reaching full maturity at 2.5 years old. While the dominance behaviors between Grizzer and Shadow appear intense, they are actually common forms of communication for this social pack animal. These daily sessions of body posture, growls and dominance displays help to reduce a more significant issue over rank. We are most impressed with the influence Maya has over the male role. Maya continues to pay homage to Shadow, but if her behavior gets too excitable, Grizzer comes over to inspect.
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As the only female in the pack, Maya reserves the right to be dominant in most situations. Her most famous behavior is scent marking. Dominant females use what’s termed a modified RLU. This behavior is critical in the wild where a dominant male and dominant female may both mark a spot indicating that the territory is occupied by a breeding pack. Maya marks food, or areas where the other wolves have recently marked.
Maintaining wolves during the winter time requires constant assessment of nutritional status, wolf interactions during the most aggressive time of the year, physical response to changing temperatures and water consumption. The wolves have their winter water heaters installed and have adapted well to the change from the summer water system to the winter system. While wolves in the wild find fresh snow to have insulating value, wolves in captivity need some type of additional insulation due to compaction of snow. Fresh straw bales are given to the wolves several times during the month to ensure a warm place to rest. The den is lined with straw as well, but the wolves rarely use the den except to escape summer heat. In this week’s video of Grizzer, you see him investigating the straw as do the other wolves.
Sorry for the delay in the logs, Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt was in Anchorage Alaska last week for the Wildlife Society National Meeting and general wolf care was the main priority in her absence. Grizzer has certainly returned to his winter look, a full pelage and the impression that he is wider than he is tall. As you look at Grizzer's video this week, it's hard to believe this is the same skinny tailed wolf visitors saw this summer. Grizzer's excess size is good for Malik, Grizzer doesn't run very fast in the daily dominance displays around the enclosure.
A recent email to the Center inquired about the size of the denboxes. While we do have photos of both Lakota and Lucas lying together in a denbox, they are designed by USDA specifications to house one wolf. During the winter, we place many squares of straw in the box and line the back walls with straw to create a warm, out of the wind space for one wolf. Lakota not only uses the den box as a perch, but she is usually found curled up inside the box. MacKenzie will use the boxes on cold wet days, but prefers the watchful vantage point of her corner.
Grizzer’s testing has subsided a bit, although he still has his moments. We know when the wolves are getting along well, when they share sleeping arrangements. As I write this, Grizzer and Shadow are sharing a straw bed together. In this week’s video, Grizzer’s puppy behavior still exists as he rolls in the fresh falling snow. In Shadow’s video, you will see Grizzer and Shadow playing in the new straw.
As her video shows, MacKenzie fed on her deer leg in her special corner on Saturday night and was doing well through the weekend. On Monday morning, staff came in and found MacKenzie having great difficulty with her back legs. This acute onset of a major problem may be related to a possible spinal stroke or a pinched nerve. It is certainly spinal in nature, but differing from Lucas’s situation, this was an overnight occurrence, not a gradual decline. The veterinarian was here this morning and we are attempting medications to relieve the inflammation and pain. If there is no response by Tuesday morning, we will attempt a medication change and continue monitoring her condition. She is resting comfortably in a full bale of straw and willingly takes her medication. She will get individual meat meals daily to increase her strength and keep her fluids up. We will keep the logs posted in the next few days to keep you updated on her condition. She is an incredibly dignified animal and out of respect for her, we have disconnected the webcams as she struggles with this condition. Please rest assured wolf care staff are monitoring her progress, making her as comfortable as possible as we wait to see the response to the medication.
Maya continues to show strong dominant female behavior. Of course, she’s the only female, so the challenge is minimal, but she is showing pair bonding behavior with Shadow and a clear dominant right to feed on the deer carcasses and defend them. In this week’s video, she’s carrying her possession to the top of the den to feed and guard it.
MacKenzie and Lakota shared some cornish game hens and a 15 lb turkey today. MacKenzie has a good appetite, but was irritated by the ravens attempting to scavenge. Wolf care staff waited outside of the enclosure to discourage the ravens (the resident ravens have a fear of people and fly when they see a human) until the wolves seemed to have their full. MacKenzie took the turkey to the straw bed in the corner, but Lakota took up residence and ended up sleeping with the turkey. MacKenzie was resting in the 2nd den box. Today is the first day with the reduced treatment, staff will be monitoring to determine any changes in her condition.
We've been holding off reporting on MacKenzie until we observed her for a few days with the lower dose medication. On Thursday, the girls were given some cornish game hens and a turkey, as MacKenzie's appetite is very good. On Friday morning, we came in to find MacKenzie guarding her turkey cache and asserting dominance over Lakota with just a stern glance of the eye and Lakota rolled over. She was mobile, but not as active as the days following the initial response of the higher dose of drugs. Her stability seems to be better, but when she's turning around, she sometimes looses support. We are most impressed with her attitude and willingness to interact with both Lakota and Staff. We will continue to keep you posted and to the many people that asked, we are having discussions about the inevitable loss of one of the retired wolves and the management plan for a remaining lone wolf.
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