Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Carol Mucha This week, there were a couple of special groups visiting the wolf center-the Girl Scouts and a Pups at One Year group. Malik took took the extra attention with his usual calm, posing on the greeting rock with the experience of a seasoned ambassador wolf. He and his packmates explored all of the new enclousure improvements-fresh pine shavings and cedar chips in the den and new birch logs- with curiosity, and enjoyed the addition of minnows to their pond. Malik enjoyed a special treat of watermelon this weekend. He was able to eat his share of deer Saturday night, unrestricted as he used to be by Nyssa.
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Pups at One Year participants were asked to describe each wolf and their behavior that they observed during their weekend at the Center. Maya was described as being persistent and extremely predatory. She has intense, piercing eyes and is always very focused when on a task. As part of the Pups at One Year program enclosure enrichment projects were completed including the addition of misc. fruits and treats. In this weeks picture you see her attempting to get a piece of fruit out of a hole in the log.
Written by Pups at One Year participant Lynn Kaveny My fondest memory from this weekend with the pack is enjoying Grizzer and his headstrong puppy antics and his longing for acceptance and attention. He seems determined to be in the middle of whatever is going on, whether it's with Shadow and Malik, or challenging Maya. Maybe he sees his status declining. He may fool us and come out on top; he hasn't shown us all he's got. It will be interesting to follow his progress.
Lucas seems to be more inactive than Mackenzie and Lakota, especially during hot days like yesterday. It is not easy to deal with temperatures of 93 F with the dense undercoat they still have. Wolf care staff helps with the shedding by combing them every morning. But as you can see, sometimes they need to keep cool inside their den boxes.
Malik and Shadow continue to display some issues concerning status. Normally, springtime behavior is less aggressive than the dominance issues common in winter. Hormonally, the male wolves are driven by a heightened level of testosterone in winter, with a lower level in spring. In the 5 years that I've worked with Malik and Shadow (they turned 5 on May 8th), this is the longest (into the Spring) we've observed some intense interactions. The posturing of bodies, the averting of gazes and the positioning of tails indicates that there's no clear acceptance of the top order here. There are many things that can impact it. Shadow is timid around strangers and a Behind the Scenes visit that can leave Shadow with a tucked tail, will often result in Malik in high tail. Staff are very cognitive of these specialized programs and the behavior of the wolves after a session. Shadow seems to have the most social behavior with Grizzer and Maya, while Malik may not share in the intensity of the greetings. The relationships between wolves often helps dictate the status of individuals. The Center is offering some specialized programs called "Wolf Watchers", where program participants spend an overnight observation period in the auditorium watching the dynamics of the pack. These observations will be more important than ever as the pack transitions their relationships and rank orders.
As you may know from reading the home page, the Center suffered a tragic loss of Nyssa, the lower ranking female. Nyssa served as important role as an ambassador for wolves in the wild and touched many lives in her short time on the Exhibit. The events on the morning of the 11th may never be known. Since the day of the medical exams (I worked 29 straight hours with the wolves and behavioral team) and the subsequent overnight observation sessions that followed, behavioral observers noted she was playful with the pack and often encouraged interaction by playbowing to fellow pack members. Daily wolf care checks included a complete inspection of the females (including photographing incision sites to monitor progress) as well as a status check on the dynamics. On Tuesday, she was photographed stalking and pouncing on Grizzer. Tuesday's photographs of the incision sites revealed that both Maya and Nyssa were healing well with no problems. Staff delivered antibiotics 3 times a day to Nyssa with the last antibiotic early in the evening on Tuesday. Log observations showed the pack calm, Nyssa very socially interactive and no issues. I know it is difficult for people to understand the behavior of wolves; their complex social orders and dynamics cannot be assessed by human judgement, their actions are neither good nor bad. In a world that is clearly run by wolf rules, we must appreciate the lessons they have taught us and remember the behaviors of the past and present to aid in understanding the future.
Lucas seeks the comfort of the denbox and has spent most of the in it. Lucas is thoroughly enjoying the retired life. He took possession of a frozen turkey that was confiscated from Maya during a enclosure enrichment session. Maya was less than thrilled about losing her turkey, but needed to save room for her beaver later in the day.
This week has been very busy for the wolf care staff with the wolf ethology program, hence the delay in updating the wolf logs. With the Behind the Scenes participants and the wolf ethology students in the wolf yard, Grizzer tends to stay away from the fence due to his fear of new people. This is a good teaching moment for the wolf care staff, as it serves to remind us that wolves, by their innate nature, are shy & fearful of humans. To provide enclosure enrichment this week, blocks of ice with various items frozen in it (such as beaver, feathers, meat scraps, and a deer tail) were given to the wolves. This provided a distraction for Grizzer, and he seemed to enjoy the ice block with feathers that he had.
PART TWO Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Diann Evans We were encouraged to feed "Nubee" as often as she showed interest, after all, the other pups had a one-week head start. Since we fed her so much, her stomach was always well-rounded. Even at week two, she showed her "spunky attitude" by growling at the other pups and gnawing on their legs and tails. Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Dena Arntzen I remember Nyssa as "Nubee", the newest and smallest of the summer 2004 trio. Her eyes were so dark as to almost seem to disappear into the rest of her jet-black face. But those eyes sparkled and took in everything.. She was tenacious and loving all at the same time as she worked to keep up with her big brother and sister. In one important way she surpassed them both, and that was in her ability to find a spot in everyone's heart. Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Kristen Radermacher I remember her tenacity; she never gave up until she dropped into an exhausted sleep. She fit in my cupped palms and slept and snuggled there. For a wolf with a voracious appetite, as a yearling we sure struggled to bottle her. She was much more interested in the gruel than either Grizzer or Maya, but it was still a struggle to get her to eat. She really held her own against the larger pups, giving as good as she got. She was a tough but sweet puppy; she is missed. Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Matt Weeks I can only begin to imagine what it must be like to to be an integral part of their day-to-day lives, or what it much have been like to nurse these pups in their formative days. Nyssa's impact on everyone is simply testimony to just what these animals mean to us and what they should mean to us all.
Maya is doing better, of all the wolves, she seems to be responding with the most submissive behavior. She has started to interact with the other pack members again, primarily Grizzer and Shadow. In this week's photo, she spent some time digging out a cache and started to play with the hide. She's been swimming a lot in the pond, and had a chase bout with Grizzer this morning that included a big splash. In Shadow's photo this week, you will see him guarding Maya from Malik, when she was digging the cache.
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