Due to the active schedule with the ongoing Wolf Ethology class at the Center, all logs will be the same. Shadow continues to have some issues with groups behind the scenes, so the schedule has been modified for the class, with more observations from inside the observation area. Shadow seems to do much better with this. The weather’s been hot and humid this week, causing the wolves to reduce their activity levels significantly. The biting flies are out and all wolves have been treated with Biospot for fly control on their ears. Grizzer and Maya have completed shedding their dense undercoat, with the exception of some loose hair on their necks and tails. Shadow and Malik, as arctic subspecies are a bit delayed in the shedding and are about midway through the process. Although the Retired Pack members are Great Plains subspecies, they are also delayed in the shedding process, possibly due to their age. Lakota has a growth on her face that has been increasing in size. The Veterinarian has chosen to wait until cooler temperatures before anesthetizing her and removing the growth. He has determined that it is benign, but it may continue to grow. Staff will be watching this carefully and have been cleaning it daily.
Archives
Due to the active schedule with the ongoing Wolf Ethology class at the Center, all logs will be the same. Shadow continues to have some issues with groups behind the scenes, so the schedule has been modified for the class, with more observations from inside the observation area. Shadow seems to do much better with this. The weather’s been hot and humid this week, causing the wolves to reduce their activity levels significantly. The biting flies are out and all wolves have been treated with Biospot for fly control on their ears. Grizzer and Maya have completed shedding their dense undercoat, with the exception of some loose hair on their necks and tails. Shadow and Malik, as arctic subspecies are a bit delayed in the shedding and are about midway through the process. Although the Retired Pack members are Great Plains subspecies, they are also delayed in the shedding process, possibly due to their age. Lakota has a growth on her face that has been increasing in size. The Veterinarian has chosen to wait until cooler temperatures before anesthetizing her and removing the growth. He has determined that it is benign, but it may continue to grow. Staff will be watching this carefully and have been cleaning it daily.
Maya is the most stimulated by the new weekly enclosure enrichment projects that are scheduled every Wednesday at noon through August. As we've stated many times before, Maya's predatory behavior is much greater and the search for hidden items allows Maya to intensify her focus. Her body postures and marking of possessions allows the visitors to develop an understanding of the term "Predatory Drive".
As the dominant male on the Exhibit, Shadow has a wide variety of social expressions to communicate his status and interaction amongst the pack members. In this week's video, he is intent on new scents on the exhibit as well as quick to repond to evidence of wild wolves near the enclosure. Of all the wolves here, he is the most likely to lead the pack in a howl or bark at an intruder.
Due to the active schedule with the ongoing Wolf Ethology class at the Center, all logs will be the same. Shadow continues to have some issues with groups behind the scenes, so the schedule has been modified for the class, with more observations from inside the observation area. Shadow seems to do much better with this. The weather’s been hot and humid this week, causing the wolves to reduce their activity levels significantly. The biting flies are out and all wolves have been treated with Biospot for fly control on their ears. Grizzer and Maya have completed shedding their dense undercoat, with the exception of some loose hair on their necks and tails. Shadow and Malik, as arctic subspecies are a bit delayed in the shedding and are about midway through the process. Although the Retired Pack members are Great Plains subspecies, they are also delayed in the shedding process, possibly due to their age. Lakota has a growth on her face that has been increasing in size. The Veterinarian has chosen to wait until cooler temperatures before anesthetizing her and removing the growth. He has determined that it is benign, but it may continue to grow. Staff will be watching this carefully and have been cleaning it daily.
Grizzer has fully shed his winter undercoat and appears slim to visitors observing him at the Center. He continues to show dominance over Malik, but the summer season is more passive than winter. The Wolf Watch team members who spent the night at the Center on July 5th observed Grizzer following Malik with Grizzer in a pricked forward ear position and higher tail posture when following or passing by Malik. These are behavioral indicators of Grizzer’s status over Malik. Wolf Watch is a program that’s offered on the first Thursday of the summer months, where participants received training in the use of an Ethogram and spend the evening recording behavior. Participants sleep in the observation area next to the wolf enclosure.
Staff clean Lakota’s face on a daily basis, but as you will see from this week’s video and photo, she uses her foreleg to wipe off the ointment. The growth has seemed to stabilize and staff continue to clean it on a daily basis. Due to the warmer temperatures over the weekend, staff have been turning on the sprinkler hoses on a daily basis to help cool off the exhibit. Lakota seems to enjoy the sprinklers, but she also spends some time soaking up the sun, but when it’s too hot, she goes underground, also shown in this week’s video. July 11th is the one year anniversary or Lucas’s death, it is hard to believe a year has gone by, but we are encouraged that the remaining Retired Wolves are still healthy a year later.
Even though MacKenzie has slowed down and can’t keep up with Lakota, she still maintains dominance over Lakota when the occasion arises. In this week’s photo, she is showing a threat display by barring her teeth, and Lakota responds by giving MacKenzie space. It is important to recognize these behavioral clues as wolf care staff, as the wolves age, they may be less tolerant of handling due to aches and pains or disorientation from the aging process. MacKenzie is still showing good mental capacity, and is much more relaxed this summer than she was last summer. This could be due to the reduction of noise from the Forest Service building across the road or the decision to eliminate nearly all Behind the Scenes traffic to the retired pack. In this week’s video, you will see the relaxed nature of MacKenzie.
Malik’s behavioral logs from the Wolf Watch program do reinforce his position in the pack as the lowest ranking male. Participants observed Malik with hackle response when competing with the rest of the pack for a beaver tail. He is also very wary of another wolf following from behind and shows timid flat ear postures and low tail when being followed. But, even though he is lower ranking, the fact that this is a non-breeding pack means that the rank hierarchy is not as strict. Malik gets opportunities to show status and he doesn’t always respond to dominance from the other two males as shown in this week’s photo, where he averts Shadow’s gaze after Shadow growls and shows a threat display. In his video clip, you see him dominate Maya over a dead minnow.
Wolf Watch participants observed Maya as the first to consume a beaver tail placed in the pack as a stimulus. The consumption of the tail led her to dig up some cached deer and consume it as well. She was also observed taking a beaver tail from Shadow, a common occurrence as Shadow isn’t too rigid with Maya. Maya and Grizzer do socially interact and chase each other with submissive rollovers interchangeable between the littermates. Another Maya comment was the intensity of the focus on her cached food. When the pack howled at 6:15 am, Maya howled, but remained with her food in a full resting position. Her video this week shows Maya scent rolling on a dead minnow.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.