This week's logs were written by Walter Loesberg, a regular visitor to the wolf center from the Netherlands. Grizzer showed considerable dominance towards Shadow (or tried to anyway) and exhibited a ride up, paw rest, following, lots of growling, and muzzle biting. He lacks experience in seeing it through though since Shadow is literally playing with him. Being big and bulky without a mature mental attitude only gets Grizzer so far.
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It’s easy to determine when Shadow’s having a bit of anxiety. In this week’s photo, he’s anxious about Grizzer behind him. The use of facial expressions, ear postures and eye contact is very critical in canid communication. But, as you see in this week’s video, Shadow is relaxing as Grizzer’s testing seems to be calming. Shadow is doing a behavior termed a snowplow. This is where wolves push the snow with their nose, then roll to the side and sometimes roll over on their back. This may be a grooming function, as it’s observed after carcass feedings when they may have blood on their nose, but it also appears to be an expression of relaxation.
We, the wolf care staff, continue to marvel at Denali's growth and how lean and tall he is. When he fills out, he is going to be an even bigger wolf. This is no surprise, considering how much he consumes. A typical routine in the past a few days after feeding would find the wolf care staff picking up and disposing of the uneaten remains of leftover carcasses as they rotted in the hot summer sun. Now…well, we are lucky if we can even find a beaver skull to clean up and use for programs! It seems that either they have become more adept at their already-expert caching abilities, or they are consuming everything being fed. Due to finding no remains, we think the latter is the case.
Denali showed some fear avoidance behavior as the museum construction begins, and will likely last the whole summer. This has been good for Aidan, who takes the opportunity to dominate Denali when he's nervous. To people who think the curator's job is glamorous, you may want to take a look at Denali's video clip this week. After taking a cached beaver from Maya, he proceeds to bring it to me and drop it on my shoes, then roll it around a bit before he takes it to the greeting rock. Denali sure does love the mid-week beaver feedings.
As one can see from this week's video, the yearlings still continue to give Grizzer a run for his money, and he remains extremely tolerant. However, he has stepped up his displays of dominance and will not hesitate to discipline them if they become overly-rambunctious. This can cause some redirection from Grizzer towards Malik, as we have observed. Grizzer remains a little anxious of our newest wolf care staff member, Walter Loesberg, which is to be expected.
As you can hear from this week's video, Maya's vocalizations might have been mistaken for Shadow's! Although Maya is the only female in this pack, it is obvious that she will not hesitate to growl vigorously at Denali or perform an inhibited muzzle bite. Maya still displays her excellent predatory abilities when stalking and lunging at Aidan, but also during enclosure enrichments which are done twice a week. Of all the wolves, she is extremely adept at problem-solving and figuring out how to catch minnows in the pond by placing a paw over them and dragging them to the shallower waters. She is also the wolf who seems to use her recall the most of previous places where food has been placed during enclosure enrichments, often frequenting those same areas looking for food.
It would be safe to say that Shadow approves of our newest wolf care staff member, Walter Loesberg. Shadow has been very receptive to Walter's presence and has been very exuberant in his greetings to Walter during wolf checks. For a nine year old wolf, he is doing very well and shows no signs of being ready for retirement. We must, however, always be alert and watchful of signs that retirement is impending; it is inevitable. As wolves age, we monitor physical and physiological health, changes in pack dynamics and the heiarchy, and most importantly, psychological health. Our top priority in wolf care has been and will always continue to be, quality of life and what is in their best interests.
Denali is asserting more dominance and will likely increase in rank before the winter is over. The photo and video are from the same scene. It was initially started by Shadow howling, then Maya aggressively chased Aidan, then Grizzer went after Malik, then Shadow put an end to all the chaos by dominating Grizzer. Denali, who wasn’t involved in the other situations, took advantage of Grizzer. Such is the life of a rank ordered pack of wolves. We weighed the wolves this week and Denali is up to 110.67 lb from an April weight of 108 lbs.
There seems to be a lot of built up tension in Grizzer, observers have been recording more direct eye stares toward Malik, and his tendency to grab chains, roll rocks and chew branches when he is frustrated has been increasing. It is critical that we keep the pack calm, as any small event can trigger redirection. We weighed the wolves this week and Grizzer is the exact same 121.25 lbs.
Maya has been very intense lately, as you read in Aidan’s log, most of the behavior revolves around Aidan. She is very in-tune with Aidan’s vulnerability, and when Aidan shows anxious behavior, it is perceived weakness and she stalks, pins and dominates him. It’s a cascading issue, as the more she stalks him, the more he becomes nervous. Again, its wolf care staff’s job to keep things calm, and we take that job really seriously. We weighed the wolves this week and Maya is down to 93.91 lbs from an April weight of 94.3.
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