About us - Ambassador Wolves

Exhibit Pack Update – 13 October 2023

Exhibit Pack Update – 29 September 2023

Blackstone identified a small rodent that had made its way out of the woods and was kind of moving around the exhibit. He was acting playful towards it, not really showing any predatory behavior by biting it. Blackstone was displaying investigative behaviors by batting it around with his paw and sniffing it. He even does a play bow to it.  Wolves are large generalist carnivores, and they need a large amount of meat to sustain themselves. Thus, these small rodents while they may be entertaining, wolves do not tend to utilize them as food resource like a fox or a coyote would. Further, our ambassador wolves receive plenty of opportunities to feed from large carcasses a couple of times per week and we also offer smaller food items on a daily basis. For Blackstone, just a yearling being a yearling, utilizing an opportunity. The rodent was unscathed by this little interaction even though a Blackstone did pick him up and carry him around a little bit. 

With the seasonal changes the wolves are getting a little bit more animated. Caz and Rieka are still showing some pair bonding behavior. We see Caz rubbing under her chin and Rieka is very tolerant of him. Grayson is still in the middle though, especially with Caz being subordinate to Grayson, but also every once in a while, Rieka gives Grayson that affectionate inhibited muzzle bite.

Follow this link to watch this interaction. 

Exhibit Pack Update – 22 September 2023

Earlier this week, on Saturday September 16th, we captured some footage that was particularly interesting, and we wanted to offer some interpretations. Rieka was standing over Blackstone and doing little bit of social greetings and kind of presenting herself to Blackstone. She attempts to do a stand over, but she is a little too short. You see her tail rising as she moves closer to him and that’s a little bit more assertive and a little bit less social. Grayson comes around and he seems to be always keeping an eye on what the yearlings are up to.  

We had someone ask us recently, “is Rieka mature yet?” After some of us chuckled and said, “it depends upon the day,” she really is showing much more assertiveness, much more direct eye contact, facing issues more directly, and showing strong body postures. For example, even though Blackstone seemed to resist her dominance displays in the footage, she didn’t back off. She’s had a history of being a little bit intimidated and approaching from behind by tail grabbing because she wasn’t very confident. We are now seeing her directly facing the males and dealing with her place as the dominant female.  

On that same footage, we saw Caz taking an opportunity while Rieka was focused on Blackstone to do a chin rest and that is a dominant posture. Then he goes into a ride up. His tail indicated that he was not very comfortable, and it doesn’t seem like he’s very confident about that move. Blackstone was also facing him so that certainly could have been the issue.  

One of the highlights of this particular video is that we observed Caz and Rieka do a very short parallel gait after all this posturing and chin resting. Rieka kind of walked into that because she protected Caz from a lot of dominance interactions. Pictured above you can see their feet parallel to each other and walking shoulder to shoulder. Parallel walking is a social bonding behavior so we can confirm that fall is in the air.  

It is autumnal equinox today, equal length of daylight and darkness, the first official day of fall. We’re starting to see some beautiful fall colors and feeling the temperature changes. With having a dry summer we’re likely to see some more intense colors than we might see during a wet year. With fall officially arriving, we know that wolf activity will increase so we’ll be watching that as the sun sets earlier every day, we certainly will keep an eye on what the pack is up to. 

You may watch the footage here.  

Exhibit Pack Update – 15 September 2023

Last weekend we celebrated the Harvest Moon Festival here in Ely so our creative wolf care specialist, Abby Keller, made a scarecrow out of a variety of things: a gourd for its head, liver for its lips, frozen hay for its arms, legs and torso, and bison hide for its sash. When the wolves first saw the scarecrow, they displayed neophobic behaviors. Caz was the most intimated by the mysterious new figure. Rieka and Blackstone were the most curious, immediately approaching it and sniffing it. Axel was also very interested but was a little bit more cautious but was the first to grab a section of the scarecrow and left the scene with the head and liver lips. Grayson stood by and waited for everyone to disperse a little bit. Once Grayson approaches and takes the sash, he is followed by Caz which can be intimidating when you are trying to enjoy or eat something without competition. This is a very interesting example that demonstrates the differences in wolf personalities. 

We do these enrichments to stimulate wolves physically and mentally and it also gives us the opportunity to see each wolf’s preferences for what they seem to enjoy and investigate the most. This past weekend it was in honor of the Ely Harvest Moon festival, and we coordinated it with the Chamber of Commerce to offer eight fall harvest themed enrichments.  

Blackstone continues to be a little bit more timid about things. Caz showed a lot of parallel gating with Grayson this week and parallel howling. We watched him do a stand over to Grayson, so I think we’re seeing the onset of this male rank order fleshing out a little bit. 

Axel’s feeling better. We adjusted his meds and that seems to be making him feel a little bit more active. We have seen him socially interacting with the pack, including tail wags, and grooming behaviors with Grayson. When the yearlings approach, they have very low body postures, so still in a submissive posture towards the arctics. Certainly, this male rank order is going to be a little bit more established as time progresses and we transition from fall into winter. 

Speaking of fall into winter, we had an overnight frost that required us to add a little bit of hay for the wolves and they seemed to appreciate that decision. Hay is also a great place to cache and come back to it later. We took down our misting system to make sure that lines didn’t freeze. Preparing for the cold a little bit earlier than usual. 

The interactions between Rieka and the male rank order are something that we’re kind of watching. Who’s Rieka spending a lot of time with? Who is Rieka sleeping in proximity to? But you know it’s a little early yet so we expect some of that will probably show itself closer to November, December, and into January and February where we’re going to see a little bit more seriousness. Right now, it’s just life in the pack. It is pretty relaxed. We take care of their needs, and they can just be wolves and that’s really our objective in Wolf Care.  

Exhibit Pack Update – 8 September 2023

We are doing pack updates a bit differently in the logs.  This text is the narrative from the Youtube channel which is done weekly. This allows details to be searched a bit more efficiently and logs to be posted more frequently. 

 

Every morning we bring the pack into what’s called the pack holding area (PHA) which is adjacent to our Wolf Care Center (WCC) building and the Wolf Lab. The younger animals walk into the WCC and get weighed but often they’re distracted by things like chipmunks. Caz jumping to catch the chipmunk is a good demonstration of why wolf fences should be 10-feet high with an overhang. They can also get distracted by vegetation or in some cases berries. We are almost done with the berry season, but there’s still a few low hanging Mt. Ash berries on the trees. They also get distracted by things in the trees, like birds that have been starting the fall migration might land or hit the exhibit windows or it might land and eat some seeds. We also have wasps that have been around as the drought increases. The yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets seem to take advantage of that drier condition and that means we have to apply a little bit more fly ointment. We often will have the wolves help the process; we spray the fly ointment on the rocks and let them scent roll. Because they go into the pond, we’re very cautious about what we use. We do use a lot of cedar oil, lemongrass, and peppermint. There are some other chemicals that work much more effectively but because they go in the water, and they eventually drink that water we want to be kind of mindful of what we put on the wolves. We already observed and recorded Caz dunking his head underwater for approximately 16 seconds. He has no problem sticking his face all the way down in to identify some things and so does Blackstone. The wolves can see the bottom of the pond and they try to figure out how to strategize to get their feet in and bring something to a shallow area so they can reap the benefits. Blackstone often gets ice chunks with a little bit of meat inside as enrichment since it has been so hot, as it has in most of the country. Today, temperatures dropped, and we had 39 degrees this morning. We certainly can appreciate Canada and Northwest winds as this cold front moved in and made it a little bit more manageable for the wolves. When it’s hot we like to get them in the shade, keep them on cool rocks and we like to make sure that everybody’s comfortable. Then there’s the pack social dynamics that come with cooler weather, so we’re starting to see activity and dominance ramp up a little bit here in the next few weeks, we also know it’s not out of the realm of possibility to get snow in September. Once we get snow the wolves get very active. 

 

Check out these links from the Timberwolf Alliance for wolves that are jumping for berries and from Voyageurs Wolf project for wolves dunking their heads for fish – 

Caz Shaking the Snow from his Sparse Guard Hairs

Being able to distinguish Blackstone and Caz can be a challenge.  For those of  us that interact with them on a daily basis, we have some pointers to make the ID easier.   Caz has an intense predatory drive, so if you see one of the 2022 pups (now known as yearlings) attempting to grab a piece of meat or intently protect a deer hide, it is likely Caz.   Another physical clue to identify Caz relates to to this intense predatory drive;  As a wolf pup that is more inclined to be in conflict with the rest of the pack over food possession, he is also more likely to get rolled to the ground and pinned for his intense food aggression.  This constant force of getting rolled on his back has worn off some of his young guard hairs, leaving a sparse winter coat.  We witnessed a similar issue with Aidan in the winter of 2009, not because he was food possessive, but he lived with a dominant female Maya that seemed to focus on keeping Aidan in a subordinate position.   With Aidan as we likely expect with Caz, his guard hairs will fill in as he approaches next fall as a maturing  young adult.   Caz and Blackstone turned one year of age on April 6th; Caz is tracking about 8 pounds smaller than his littermate, weighing 92 pounds on his birthday, compared to Blackstone’s 100 pounds.  We also notice that Caz is more reserved in his social interactions with the wolf care staff.  The 2022 litter was acquired after the critical bonding period, so you may notice a difference in the sweeping tail wags of Rieka towards the staff compared to Blackstone in Caz.  The trust and bond towards staff is best formed in the first 21 days of their life.  The result of a weak trust may result in behavior that is more neophobic or fearful of new experiences, strange people and even the heater in the Wolf Care Center.  The morning procedure checklist includes turning this heater off before Caz comes into the building to get weighed.

Blackstone – Ice Build-Up

As spring arrives, snow still falls in Northern Minnesota.  The change of seasons can mean that snow holds more moisture and more ice sticking to the hair between the wolves pads.  In this photo, Blackstone is working to remove those ice chunks.  We are all anxiously awaiting spring, for a lot of reasons.  The seasonal hormones of wolves change with the warmer weather, but with a -4 morning temperature on April 7th, we are not experiencing the benefit of warmer weather.  Caz and Blackstone turned one year old yesterday and despite Blackstone being the larger of the two pups (weighing in at 100 pounds on his birthday), Blackstone is often the target of Rieka and Caz as they team up to assert some dominance.   Last week, some of that dominance led to a bite wound on Blackstone, but within 24 hours of treatment,  he was back to his usual activity, demonstrating the resilience of wolves.  Blackstone does have his own team alliances.  Similar to Grayson when he was a yearling, Blackstone has a significant social bond with Grayson.

In looking back at Grayson’s quote in 2017 about his alliances and leadership, we could modify that quote to fit Blackstone:

April 2023 Update:   “What is most notable is that while Blackstone figures out his way in the pack, he has been observed being Grayson’s wingman, helping when Grayson shows some status over Caz or Axel.  Watching and learning is what helps shape the leaders of tomorrow and what better wolf to emulate, than Grayson.”

Grayson- Watching the Pack from the hillside

Grayson has a history of being the “watchful one”, as shown in this quote from March 2017.   We posted the following update on Grayson just two months before his first birthday:

March 2017 Update:   “What is most notable is that while Grayson figures out his way in the pack, he has been observed being Aidan’s wingman, helping when Aidan shows some status over Boltz or Denali.  Watching and learning is what helps shape the leaders of tomorrow and what better wolf to emulate, than Aidan.”

In 2023, Grayson continues to be the watchful one, initially watching over Rieka who was introduced as a pup in 2021, but also watching over Caz and Blackstone, the 2022 pups.  But lately, Grayson has to be watchful of Rieka, who as a maturing dominant female, has become more protective over the 2022 pups, especially Caz.  Grayson is taking it in stride and the pups still seek him out for social reassurance and leadership, especially if there are external intruders at the outer fence.  It is up to Rieka if she will chose to support Grayson in that leadership role or build the confidence of one of the 2022 pups in the upcoming year as they transition from yearlings to adulthood.

Rieka following a squirrel up a tree

When we introduced Rieka to the Exhibit Pack in August of 2021, we felt that she was missing some “pup” experiences by joining a pair of 5-year old males (arctic wolves, Axel and Grayson).  The Arctic’s tried to do some social playbows, but Axel got a bit intense and food possessive to give Rieka the feeling of social play.  With the addition of Caz and Blackstone in July 2022, Rieka’s world changed dramatically.  For months, she wrestled, jawsparred, tugged on hides and even tugged on tails as pups are supposed to do.  She even tried to follow a squirrel up a tree, with the support of Caz looking on.  As she approaches her 2nd birthday, we are seeing less pup behaviors and more mature Rieka behaviors. We can’t wait to see her develop into the dominant female leadership role.

Axel – Tolerant of Rieka

Axel’s didn’t have a very warm welcome for Rieka in the fall of 2021 when she joined the pack.  We also so Axel’s physical coat condition decline after the arrival of the 2022 pups, Caz and Blackstone.  We are still trying to figure out what diagnostic tests we can run to come up with an answer, but it seems like this may be a stress induced situation. He has responded well to fish oil supplements and a species specific probiotic.  We will likely require bloodwork to get a full assessment of his health, but that requires anesthesia and we will need to wait until the wolves have passed their “winter hormone” seasonal dominance.  After the introduction of some of the nutritional supplements, we have noticed Axel’s tolerance of Rieka improve.