Aidan's had a good week, but he has taken to laying in the upper den holes during the warm days, which leaves him trapped on the hill sometimes. By trapped, we mean that Maya waits and tries to ambush him when he comes down, so he sometimes stays in the woods until he has a wolf care staff member create a Maya distraction to come down the hill. Once he's in his safety zone in the front of the exhibit, everythings fine.
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Maya's intensity towards Aidan has diminished in the last several weeks, but when Aidan uses the upper enclosure dug den, she eye stalks him and can keep him from coming to the front of the enclosure. So far, Aidan has figured out how to deal with it, but it's just another one of Maya's charms as the dominant female.
Shadow has been in a fairly good mood, which means he is more accepting of staff and has a spring in his step. When he gets excited, he displays a whirl behavior, where he spins around then races away with a low body posture, wagging his tail. What has changed, is the interactions between Malik and Shadow. While they still have many video clips from the security camera that show good compatibility, there are moments during wolf care that show them facing off, with both posturing a high tail. Malik is holding his own, but Shadow usually wins the stand off.
The log postings are all the same this week, we have a Working for Wolves program this weekend and will post some behavioral observations from participants on Sunday. The Exhibit Pack is doing well, despite the increased aggression that is typical of the first cold and snow of the year. Both packs received straw on their dens which is always a source of initial excitement, but also encourages bedding behavior. Malik's abscessed tooth has healed, as his photo shows no indication of the scar. Shadow continues to take small portions of food on a daily basis with a peak of interest when the weather turned cold.
The log postings are all the same this week, we have a Working for Wolves program this weekend and will post some behavioral observations from participants on Sunday. The Exhibit Pack is doing well, despite the increased aggression that is typical of the first cold and snow of the year. Both packs received straw on their dens which is always a source of initial excitement, but also encourages bedding behavior. Malik's abscessed tooth has healed, as his photo shows no indication of the scar. Shadow continues to take small portions of food on a daily basis with a peak of interest when the weather turned cold.
The log postings are all the same this week, we have a Working for Wolves program this weekend and will post some behavioral observations from participants on Sunday. The Exhibit Pack is doing well, despite the increased aggression that is typical of the first cold and snow of the year. Both packs received straw on their dens which is always a source of initial excitement, but also encourages bedding behavior. Malik's abscessed tooth has healed, as his photo shows no indication of the scar. Shadow continues to take small portions of food on a daily basis with a peak of interest when the weather turned cold.
Shadow continues to need special feeding times and techniques. The Curator spends each evening with the Retired Pack, often taking an hour or so to get Shadow to eat 3 lbs of meat. It's a relaxing end to busy days, and has allowed the bond with Shadow to increase. Shadow shows excitement during these evening sessions and may spend time chasing around the enclosure or crawling in and out of his new den hole he dug near the pond. We weren't certain how deep the hole extended, but on Thursday night's feeding session, Shadow was able to crawl in, turn around and peer up at the Curator, before getting excited and lunging out of the den to do a whirl.
One of the commonly asked questions is how we feed the wolves. We feed on a once a week schedule allowing the wolves to gorge and satiate with meat, then cache the rest for later. In today's photo, you see Malik giving direct eye contact when I came to close to him eating a cache. These are great behaviors that accompany a natural diet of large carcass feedings.
Shadow has very little tolerance for fly ointment application. We have tried every way to sneak it on his ears, but he smells the ointment and avoids us. This is not the best scenario because at this age, we need to physically check him on a daily basis. We've come to a solution that seems to work (other than hoping for cold and snow, which would also work). We spray cedar oil in and around the den, which does wonders for keeping the den relatively fly proof (considering it has a 5 foot wide opening). We also spray a pet safe fly repellent on a birch stump and the wolves scent roll, getting repellent on the top of the head. This is not as good as using ointment on the tips of their ears, but it keeps the flies of their head, which is a great help. This is obviously the better choice than having Shadow avoid us and this serves as a good reminder that we need to condition Boltz and Luna to fly issues.
We had some great behaviors from Aidan towards the pups. Not only does he regurgitate for them after the main pack feeding, but he's been bringing deer legs to the edge of the fence and caching them near the pups. He was a bit startled when he brought a deer leg to Luna and she aggressively growled and lunged at the fence toward Aidan. To his credit, he slowly walked away and had no response to Luna's behavior.
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