The video for most of the wolves is focused on an incident with Shadow that was result of some intense dominance between Aidan and Maya, then between Grizzer and Malik. Shadow started a howl after wolf care, Maya became excited and dominated Aidan, and then Grizzer chased Malik. Shadow put an end to all the chaos by dominating Grizzer with some severity and hackles, and then Maya came over and did appeasement behavior towards Shadow. The only problem that we saw was that while Grizzer was being put back in his place, Denali took advantage of Grizzer and Shadow didn’t dominate Denali. Although, later Denali was observed in a very submissive posture. Some days, Shadow has had enough with this pack. We weighed the wolves this week and Shadow is down to 88.6 lbs from an April weight of 84.66. This is certainly a concern to lose 4 lbs in 3 months, but it could be age related or the stress of being dominant with this pack.
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Aidan continues to be wary of Maya, but there are moments where he initiates play behavior. His video clip this week shows this behavior. He's a bit of a prancer, riding up on his back legs to do a ride up on Maya. It will be interesting to see how he develops as an adult, and if this prancing behavior is just youthful exuberance. We have been experiencing a challenge in delivering daily vitamins to Aidan. The vitamins are given in a meatball, and all wolves are very excited at the fence while they are being delivered. This causes Aidan to be cautious of Maya, as her excitement level often leads to redirection. Assistant Curator, Donna Prichard developed a new protocol, stand around long enough for the other wolves to think you are out of meatballs, as they wander off, slip Aidan his vitamin.
Denali, the tallest wolf in the Exhibit Pack, maintains a strong food possession behavior. He is the reason we are still feeding twice a week. Even though he consumes more food than any other pack member, he is lean in body size. He continues to display ride-up behavior on all the adult males, so far, Shadow is the only one that puts an end to this obnoxious juvenile behavior.
Grizzer displayed some interesting howling behavior. One day, when Oscar went for his morning walk, Grizzer stayed in the pack holding area howling until Oscar returned. It wasn't a stressed response, more of a low tone howl which ended with an excited tail wag and playbow when he saw Oscar again. His relaxation around the exhibit has created some very relaxed greetings with staff, but he does have his moments. He can get very excited and still has the desire to test individuals. Staff must never become complacent around wolves, even Grizzer.
The Webcams are back and installed in the Exhibit Pack. Thanks for your tolerance during these repairs. As soon as I had the Greeting Camera installed Aidan was laying on the rock. He spent some time scent rolling on our window washing soap which was a much better odor than the beaver scent he had been wearing. Aidan continues to paw at the medical pen door when Oscar is gone for a while or if he hears Oscar from inside the lab. He has a great start to a winter coat, which is nice to see on a wolf that had some stress in his life.
If you watched the Youtube video, then you've seen how Grizzer beats the heat. He likes to paw at his water dish, so we've given him one of the pup wading tanks,. Of course, Grizzer's a bit too big to wade, but he likes to paw at it and empty it. We decided not to put a pond in this habitat because we didn't want to lose space. Grizzer is often running between enclosures and a pond would limit his raceway, but after filling his wading pool 4 times, I believe I can design something that can allow him to immerse in the water. Of course, this will have to wait until Spring. Even though it's 80 degrees, the forecast for next week is 58. The water season is short here in comparison to the other seasons. We are using Castor Oil on his head, which makes his hair greasy again but it makes his skin soft and pliable. He does prefer to lick it, but he willingly allows us to massage his head. I'm not sure about hair growth, but it has only been a week.
Denali has been actively stalking small rodents that have started to gather nesting material and food scraps within the enclosure. He is also a very keen on the migratory birds that have started to land within the enclosure. Denali is also starting to show more testing behavior of Aidan and we have noticed that Oscar is a good barometer of tension in the pack and in the wolf yard.
Denali has been very playful lately, a good indication that fall is on the way. Although, temperatures have been near the 80 degree mark, not very conducive for a wolf in a full winter coat. Denali was curious about our recent concrete project in the enclosure where we had a chainlink panel around the slate den. He jumped on the panel, but didn't get over it or dig under it, allowing the concrete to dry without wolf prints.
We used our newly designed enclosure system to hold Grizzer in his new habitat and allow Aidan and Denali access to the pack holding area while some concrete work was completed in the Exhibit. We were very pleased with Grizzer's acceptance of this short-term inconvenience and are happy to know that we have the ability to conduct maintenance projects on the facility while causing the least amount of stress on the individuals.
There isn't too much to report in retirement, the days are spent resting in the shade and evenings are active according to the security cameras. Malik appears to be the most active, moving from various resting spots throughout the enclosure. He and Shadow do share den spots, but if there's one wolf inside and one on the top, chances are it's Malik on top.
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