I know we've said this before, but Maya has the best predatory skills of all the wolves at the Center. She is so focused on quick movement and is quick to stalk, chase and pounce on anything that moves. In this week's photos, you see her watching the remaining minnows as the pond drains. While most of the minnows didn't make it through the heat of the last few weeks, there were a few lone survivors and Maya sought them out.
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Shadow still appears to be most associative with Grizzer and Maya, often seeking them out or not reacting to their puppy antics. It seems that Malik gets more irritated with them if they are running up and licking or biting his face, Shadow is much more tolerant. Shadow also takes the lead on greeting Maya, but he does spend a fair amount of time with Grizzer as well. Malik has been observed attempting to approach Maya, but so far, Maya seems to favor Shadow. In today's photo, Shadow did a bit of underground excavation and scentrolling after a recent rain leaving the white guard hairs a bit tarnished. He was back on his watch at the top of the den soon after the rains quit.
Grizzer has a full stomach this morning after last night's feeding. He is also growing a full undercoat in preparation for winter, which always makes him look bigger. The cooler nightime temperatures seems to make the wolves more active. This morning, he successfully stole a food cache from Malik, despite Malik's charging and lunging behavior towards him. In this week's photo, he's guarding a stolen cache, and if I had a faster camera, you would have seen the lip curl towards Malik. Instead, you see an intent look, but notice the submissive ears, even though he successfully guards the food from Malik, he still recognizes that Malik is higher ranking, and he may pay for it later.
MacKenzie is doing well, she still spends a fair amount of time laying in her corner. Staff regularly put chips there to make her comfortable. Her winter coat is developing and she appears to readying for winter.
Malik has been actively keeping Grizzer in line, while keeping an eye out for Shadow. The male role will be interesting to watch this winter. In this week's photo, Grizzer gives Malik a lip curl in response to the dominance from Malik and Maya, while Shadow watches the action.
Malik still seems to want to test Shadow, but his look of intimidation is more noticeable. He gets easily startled if Shadow is behind him and responds with more hackles than Shadow does. Lately, Grizzer has been focusing on Malik a bit more as well. But, overall, the males seem to be getting along fine.
Maya is always the first one to run inside the enclosure and look for the hidden food that is being provide during the environmental enrichment. She is often seen on top of the raven's rock eating. When she is not busy eating, she likes to lay down on the greeting rock and enjoy the mist.
Lakota sure does seem to enjoy digging in the dirt. At first we thought it was a method for escaping the heat, but after watching her, she seems to be motivated by the height advantage the residual pile gives her. She can climb on the den boxes, and pounce down on her littermates from her higher vantage point. In this week's photo, she's made a leap of the pile and starts to run around the enclosure encouraging her littermates to chase her.
Lucas's eye condition is greatly improved this week. We also noticed a brighter look to his eyes and a willingess to see out contact from fellow staff members as well as fellow wolves. He's created a new bed underneath the remaining spruce branches from a recent tree felling. Wolf care staff will be placing straw there to make him more comfortable. The cooler mornings have created a bit of stiffness for him, but by mid-morning he's moving around well.
It was a new thing to see Malik being harassed by Shadow and Grizzer. This was the first time that Grizzer bitted Malik. Winter is going to be an interesting time to see the dominance fights, and the possible making of the final hierarchy in the exhibit pack. After the dominance interaction, Maya approached Malik in a submissive way.
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