Maya was investigating the pond rocks today. Yesterday during the “What’s for dinner program visitors had the opportunity so see her actively defend a deer leg from the rest of the pack, just to loose it to Grizzer. She was also pouncing into the pond trying to chase Grizzer and Shadow who were inside the pond playing.
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A second photo showing Grizzer's interest in shelf ice
Fear response; startled by fast movement sensory response and or noise. He is the only puppy showing a fear response at this time.
Shadow is clearly the leader of this pack. He is the one Maya runs to when there's howling, Grizzer follows him when chasing Malik and he is first to defend his territory from unfamilar visitors, both wolf and human. He has been actively defending the upper enclosure, pacing along the top fence line at what? we don't know. He has initiated at least a dozen howling sessions in the last few weeks all directed towards the upper enclosure. He also continues to bark howl, a warning sign, towards any Behind the Scenes groups. The only problem with the human groups is his natural intimidation of strangers, he tends to tuck his tail while barkhowling, making him vulnerable to Malik. He shows no fear when howling to the wild stimulus outside of the enclosure.
The pack exhibited many howling episodes this week. Most seemed directed toward the back of the main enclosure, where staff have noticed tracks from several species of wildlife in recent weeks. Shadow initiated most of these howls, and staff noticed a couple of occasions where Shadow was not able to get the rest of the pack to howl with him. He continues to monitor everything that occurs in and around the exhibit.
Grizzer has been active and a bit unpredictable lately. One minute he's mild mannered, enjoying the day, the next he's responding to the hormonal surges that seem to drive him into behavior that appears to lack judgement. Today was one of those days. During Wolf Care, Grizzer decided to do a bit of jaw sparring and ride up behavior towards Shadow, and we had the camera ready. Shadow was less than thrilled with this new side of Grizzer and promptly reminder Grizzer who runs the pack. Of course, Malik saw Shadow a bit occupied and came running with a high tail to see if he had a chance to gain some status. In the end, Shadow spent time reminding the whole pack and the humans associated with wolf care, that he's calling the shots. (check out Shadow's photo this week)…
Shadow was running with Maya and Grizzer yesterday afternoon. He is much more relax, and playing more often. He is patient with Grizzer, who sometimes tries to mount him, or tries to act a little more dominant, but as you see in this week's picture, there's no question who runs the pack. Shadow is patient, but he has his limits.
Lakota is feeling better after her self-prescribed diet of raspberries. She's been observed in more active behavior, assisting MacKenzie with the woodchuck removal process (see MacKenzie's logs). We always know when Lakota is feeling better by her tendency for displaying playbows and her climbing on the denbox. Her and Mac were observed in several dominance bouts as well.
Written by "Wolves at 2 Years" program participants Trevor and Sheila Ludden. At 6:30 am, Malik joined in an early morning howl, off to the opposite side of the enclosure from the other three wolves. After the howl, Malik participated in a group rally, runing from the other three and cirlcing around the more social interactions of Grizzer and Maya. Malik also briefly faced off with Shadow, who then ignored him.
The wolves are doing well during the recent cold spell (although, temperatures didn't dip much below 25 below zero, so not cold by Minnesota standards). On Saturday nights feeding of the Exhibit pack, 8 beaver carcasses were fed, with the intentions of filling the wolves up with a higher fat diet during the cold. Staff expected them to quickly devour the food, but the wolves weren't as hungry as we expected. Several beaver remain 4 days after the feeding, with limited interest. I guess the weather was only cold for the humans, for the wolves and their thick hides, it was just another day.
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