Denali has become the food obsessive one of this pack, and as we've stated before, is very good at keeping a possession. As I write this, he's on top of the hill by the den, trying to keep the ravens off of the remaining deer carcass. Last Wednesday, we fed a turkey carcass as a mid-week snack. Maya and Shadow got most of it, and as you can see by Denali's video, he spent most of his time food begging to try to get his share. He certainly has been getting enough food based on his size, but he acts as if he needs to have all food brought into the enclosure.
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Grizzer continues to be a calm influence this winter, and is certainly the source of the pups social behavior. It has been a learning experience since the August 2008 introduction, we've never experienced an adult wolf with this type of reaction, and personality change with the addition of pups. Grizzer is very respectful of Shadow and shows no indication that he will challenge Shadow this winter. The dominance rituals with Malik continue, but not with the same intensity we measured a month ago.
Maya has always been one of those wolves that remains a mystery to staff. When she was a pup, she was extremely timid and mild mannered. This continued for most of her first year of life, until Shadow chose her to be his paired dominant female, then the staff saw a different Maya. This must be how Aidan is responding, on some days, she stalks him and squashes him to the ground, on other days, she courts him, rubbing her chin against his cheek and walking shoulder to shoulder. Lately, the behaviors have been changing within minutes, instead of hours. One thing we are certain, wolves have their own personality traits, and one policy of management doesn't fit all. Wolf care is an opportunity to learn many things about wolf behavior.
When staff come in for a wolf check in the morning, it's important to judge the tensions in the pack. The best measure of this is Shadow. If Shadow is calm, the tensions are not too significant, if Shadow is anxious, the rest of the pack has some issues. We did a short Behind the Scenes for staff last week, the first one this winter, and while Shadow only did a brief bark howl, since he knew some of the Center staff, he was a bit agitated and redirected to the pups, which caused Maya to pin Aidan and Grizzer to chase Malik. A lesson was learned, keep Shadow calm at all costs, at least until the winter aggression subsides. We don't have as many of these issues in the summer, and will continue to offer 2 Behind the Scenes programs per week this summer.
The wolf logs will contain the same text for each wolf, as snow conditions again dominate the staff's work load. The most noticeable snow issue was a recent clearing of the snow from the Center's roof. With over 2 feet of snow on the roof, and the predicted forecast of rain adding to the weight of the snow, the decision was made to shovel all the snow from the roof, which lands directly into the wolf enclosure. To avoid giving the wolves free access to the roof, the snow had to be blown out of the front of the enclosure, resulting in a large bank in the front of the exhibit, that is at least 8 feet from the roof line. You may have noticed increased activity in front of the pond cam, as the wolves have been very actively climbing and digging in the snow bank. The wolves have also been observed sliding down the snow bank, and pushing each other off the top of the hill. It is a great vantage point and wolves do enjoy the view from the top of the hill.
This past week, the curator was out of town attending conferences for the HP grant and the Society of American Foresters. While we manage with a style of multiple wolf care staff, the change in routine can have an impact on the wolves. To distract the pack from this change, items are given to provide them a behavioral outlet. Last week, a bison hide that was donated from a hunter was given to the pack on Monday. This provided a significant amount of behavior including tug of war, guarding behavior, active submission and dominance and overall excitement. Malik became very possessive of the hide, and earned a few confused looks from Grizzer. Staff observed Malik sleeping on the hide on several occasions. The full video clip of the bison hide will be included with the YouTube video this week.
The depth of snow here has created some narrow openings to the den. Being a long, streamlined pup has an advantage for Aidan. He is much quicker at crawling through the den hole than any other wolf here, and when Maya's quick on his trail, this has become an advantage. Of course, the snow melt is in full force, so this advantage will be short lived, but with the warm temperatures, so is Maya's winter season aggression. His photo this week is rare, Aidan usually is in the mix of some behavior, and rarely poses for a face photo.
Denali is becoming Grizzer. His mannerisms, love of food, bad habits with gate chains and jumping behavior is a repeat of Grizzer's juvenile period. Fortunately, we would be pleased if Denali became an adult resembling Grizzer. Grizzer's best qualities is his extremely calm behavior and willingness to be a social companion to pups. We can only hope that Denali has the same trait with the 2012 pups.
The Lakehead University Mammology class was in Ely this past weekend to learn about wolf behavior, and assist Center operations with some key late night observations of the pack. As a stimulus for behavioral interactions, a turkey and a ham were fed to the pack on Friday night, in advance of their Saturday night feeding. The wolves were expecting more, and were somewhat excited about the limited amount of food that in their mind, should have been over 100 lbs of dinner. This created some tension and of course, Malik and Grizzer had a bit of a dominance issue. Grizzer sustained a bite to the cheek, and Malik had a swollen eye. The curator checked them out, and they were both fine, but a dose of anti-inflammatory was delivered to reduce any pain. When Grizzer was inspected during wolf care on Saturday morning, he was very tolerant of a physical inspection, and presented himself to wolf care staff several times. Thanks to the Thunder Bay group for observing and we hope it was a worthwhile experience sharing a night with the pack.
As I stated in Grizzer's logs, Malik and Grizzer got in a dominance scuffle over a small quantity of meat. It's not uncommon for wolves to scuffle over small amounts, their stomach's have receptors that naturally expand the stomach when they consume any meat. This is a physiology of feast and famine gorging behavior, which is why we always feed on a once a week schedule, allowing them enough meat to eat until they are satiated, then go for several days processing that meat until the next meal arrives. If we fed small quantities every day, we would have daily scuffles over meat. Malik had a bite over the eye that didn't cause an open wound, just some swelling. His attitude wasn't affected, he Saturday running around the exhibit with a high tail pushing Grizzer. Grizzer didn't respond.
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