Shadow has been staying in the back of the enclosure most of the day and is often panting. He doesn't handle the heat well, and has a much thicker coat than Malik. He is the first priority in brushing to help reduce the amount of hair. Staff have been hosing down the front of the Exhibit and spraying cold water in their drinking bowls. We will also be making meat flavored ice cubes to encourage them to swim in the pond and to help cool them down.
Archives
Peanut started a specialized nutritional supplement as prescribed by the University of Minnesota. We've given her slightly more room in her outdoor area, but she gets aggravated with confinement. Her 4 week post surgical x rays will occur on Wednesday, June 13th. At that time, we hope to see improvement in bone density and that the plate on her femur is healing well. If we see this improvement, we will ask the surgeon's if we can give her more activity. While confinement helps protect her bones, it doesn't do much for muscle strength. She is extremely active when she is outdoors, and wolf care staff must be very diligent to keep her from climbing and jumping. Her weights since the last posting are:<li> 5/30 – 14.2 lbs<li> 6/1 – 15.0 lbs <li> 6/2 – 15.3 lbs <li> 6/3 – 15.8 lbs
As you can see by the posted weights, Boltz has topped 40 lbs. We are still planning for the introduction on July 30th, so we are on the 24 day countdown. There are three things we are mindful of about the introduction. First is his weight, we would rather he was under 50 lbs, although we think that might not be the case on introduction day. The weight issue is important so the adult wolves still see him as a pup and not a competitor. The good thing is, Boltz and Oscar still wrestle and Boltz still willingly submits to Oscar, so given the fact that he's conditioned to be submissive to a larger canid, we think he will submit to Aidan and Denali, even though he might be bigger than we like. The second issue is Boltz's eating pattern. He is a temperamental eater. He eats small quantities, usually after some effort by wolf care staff to feed him over a several hour period. He eats a good amount of food, averaging 1.5 lbs of meat and 10 ounces of esbilac a day. When he goes into the Exhibit Pack, we would like him to consume larger quantities, less frequently. The third issue we are watching is the hormonal influence of Aidan and Denali. Their Youtube video this weeks shows some passive dominance with "Stand Over" behaviors, but still very calm and social. <br> Here are the weights since the last posting:<br> Data is shown as:<br> Date Age Pounds <br><li> 6/30/2012 106 37.0 <li> 7/1/2012 107 37.8 <li> 7/2/2012 108 38.5 <li> 7/3/2012 109 38.8 <li> 7/4/2012 110 39.2 <li> 7/5/2012 111 39.6 <li> 7/6/2012 112 41.4
This is a continuation of Malik's logs. So, after we cleaned the Den, Shadow began posturing over Malik. Initially, Malik was showing some status and averted Shadow's Stand Tall posture. Then, Malik seemed to gain a bit more confidence and he tries a direct stare to Shadow, causing Shadow to avert his gaze. It worked for that moment, but later surveillance video showed them in some social Invite Chase behavior. These wolves sure do demonstrate a lot of ethogram terms.
Prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday, we usually feed some meat scraps to keep the wolves full and sleepy for one of the few days when there is limited staff in the lab to monitor the wolves during the day. Aidan really enjoyed this protocol, as we fed bone dust, provided by Pam Slossen and moose scraps provided by a local resident cleaning out their freezer (moose from 2009). Aidan's behavioral transformation in the past year includes a significant increase in feeding opportunities. When he was low ranking, he often had to wait for meals. Now that he appears to be in control of this Exhibit, he waits for no-one.
Denali has the most interesting expressions and body language. We can see that he wants to socially engage with Aidan, but Aidan has to be in the mood to interact, otherwise, he follows Denali around. That doesn't stop Denali from doing a playbow and inviting Aidan to chase him. It does appear the Aidan is far more serious when wolf care are in the enclosure, but once we go about our day, the observations from the viewing window show Aidan being more social and engaging with Denali. The playbow behavior will be very welcoming for the new pups, it is a bit reminiscent of Grizzer's behavior with Aidan and Denali when they were pups.
Grizzer really likes the social interactions with Oscar (and another dog today, Tina) through the protective panels. If you have a chance to watch this week's Youtube, the end clip shows him giving a direct eye stare to Tina because she is relatively new to the wolf yard (an Oscar playmate who visits sometimes), but eventually, he gives in and rolls over for her. If I replayed the video from 2008, you would see the same behavior towards Aidan and Denali as pups. Now, why won't he do that for Malik? His posture towards Malik is high tail, direct eye stare and not trustworthy, which is why we have 2 retirement enclosures.
After we cleared the den of Malik's cache's, Shadow is now allowed to sleep there, and has regained his status after some obnoxious food possession behavior from Malik. In this week's YouTube clip, there's a scene with Malik, who dug up a cache, but Shadow's formidable posture makes Malik a bit too nervous (flat ears) to really possess the piece of meat. They posture and growl, but Shadow is the master of chin rests, and Malik's ears continue to drop until Shadow takes the moose meat. If Malik would have been standing over it, Shadow would have backed off like usual, but you only get to guard your possessions, if you are actually clearly possessing them. There's no gray area here.
Grizzer is getting a bit wider than usual. Every winter, he grows a thick coat that makes him look like a table top, but this winter, with the added mid-week feeding as a distraction from the construction, and as a necessity to keep Denali occupied, Grizzer's increased access to food is adding a bit to his size. By spring, he will likely lose this weight, but it is something that we are concerned about. Until the construction is complete, we will continue to feed on Wednesday's.
This week, we fed an entire deer that resulted in the wolves pulling the hide from the carcass. This hide was a great source of entertainment for Denali. The Youtube video this week shows him plucking the hide, tossing it, head shaking it and generally spending a lot of time interacting. This also reduced the time he was testing Aidan, so, when we know Denali is getting to be too much, our plan is to throw him a deer hide.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.