With summer brings heat, humidity, large crowds and various forms of stimuli for the wolves. During the Canine Cousins program today, the stimulus of two visiting dogs (belonging to Assistant Curator Donna Prichard) instigated a pack rally led by Shadow. While Aidan sometimes chooses not to join in a pack howl he participated today, although from a distance and while maintaining awareness for good reason. As is often the case following a pack rally, reassertion of dominance played out and Maya redirected aggression toward Aidan in a chase. Following the rally and chase, Aidan solicited dominance and reassurance from Shadow through face licking and submission to affirm his place in the social order of the pack.
Archives
With summer brings heat, humidity, large crowds and various forms of stimuli for the wolves. Prior to last night’s feeding, Shadow initiated interaction with the yearlings, Denali and Aidan, by inviting chase. Some of the behaviors displayed by Denali during this play sequence included running, foreleg stabs, play bows and wrestling. This type of behavior indicates relaxed, comfortable wolves and is an example of the benevolent leadership Denali and Aidan receive from Shadow.
With summer brings heat, humidity, large crowds and various forms of stimuli for the wolves. During the Canine Cousins program today, the stimulus of two visiting dogs (belonging to Assistant Curator Donna Prichard) instigated a pack rally led by Shadow. As is often the case following a pack rally, reassertion of dominance played out as Malik followed Grizzer around the greeting rocks and up the hill by the pond. When Grizzer turned to face Malik with an intent stare, Malik turned and crossed the pond on the log at which point Grizzer proceeded to follow Malik. Following is a behavior that can be used to intimidate or assert dominance. While Malik initially followed Grizzer, Grizzer ultimately asserted his dominance over Malik by using the following behavior combined with direct eye contact and intention.
Written by "Pups at One Year" program participants Wendy Watson and Laura Walters: Enrichment programs serve the purpose of creating additional stimulation for the pack. We have noticed that enrichment other than meat leads to less aggression between pack members. This week one of the enrichment programs was scent-based, by adding Catnip and Fish Oil to various items throughout the enclosure. Another enrichment program centered around two watermelons, two cantaloupe and two honeydew melons. Each melon had a core removed, small bits of sausages were stuffed into the center and the core replaced. In Malik's photo you see him enjoying a watermelon.
When you see this week's video and photo, you will understand why we budget so much money for trees. The young wolves look for any stimulus, and they find it in the low hanging branches of the trees. Aidan has a piece of lower branch and ends up doing a tug of war with Denali, winning only a branch stub. The construction on the museum has started, surprisingly, Aidan is not stressed, but Denali is. So, Aidan has been dominating Denali while Denali is preoccupied with the noise. This helps Aidan's confidence.
Aidan has adapted to brushing by the wolf care staff. Unfortunately, he does a full submission most of the time, so he has all of his belly hair brushed, but not much on his back. Actually, his back guard hairs are a bit lacking, probably from spending so much time on his back in submission to Maya this winter. Denali, has a much thicker coat than Aidan. Aidan continues to show very active submission to Shadow, running and licking Shadow's face to see reassurance of his status in the pack. Aidan seems most bonded to Shadow in this pack, although he does spend moments with Maya, as the photo for this week demonstrates.
Denali has become quite active in the pond, and continues to be the main consumer of every carcass brought into the enclosure. Wolf care staff have not removed any uneaten carcasses since the 2008 pups introduction in August 2008. This is very unusual, and we will see if this continues this summer. Summer heat usually decreases the wolves appetite, but with this pack, we are still feeding twice a week.
Grizzer and Malik's tension seems to have diminished. There were only a few incidents of tension, and all can be correlated to external influences (nighthike groups too loud, people violating the temporary fencing and coming too close to the enclosure on the far side etc.). As you can see from Grizzer's photo, his muzzle is still swollen, and the wound re-opens every time one of the yearlings muzzle bites him, which is daily (hourly?). Maya and Denali do spend a lot of time grooming the wound, which is helping to keep it clean. Our attempts to put anti-biotic ointment on Grizzer's nose resulted in Aidan and Denali licking the ointment off and trying to scent roll on Grizzer. We've stopped putting ointment on, the wolves grooming patterns are keeping the wound clean.
Maya has been very social lately, with an excessive amount of whining. Her video clip shows her in this behavior, then you will see her submissively greeting Shadow. This could indicate the normal hormonal cycle that occurs in wolves. Even in the absence of pups, there is a cycling of prolactin, the nurturing hormone. Unfortunately, we haven't discovered any way to measure these hormonal levels without bloodwork. It would be interesting to watch these hormonal cycles and correlate to behavior.
Written by Planning For Pups participants Deb Lewis and Kelly Godfrey: Denali shows his inquisitive nature as he explores the enclosure. Denali focused most of his attention on the pond after fresh minnows were added during the wolf enrichment activity. His photo for this week shows pricked ears that indicate intensity as he searches for minnows to grab. His diligence was rewarded when he successfully caught and consumed a large minnow.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.