Showed an improvement in sucking, was aggressively sucking the staff's ear, but less aggressive on the bottle.
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Physical mobility is very good. Grizz is now capable of running and romping. Grizz's mobility is better than Groan's. Has been feeding regularly and voraciously, sometimes drinking too fast. He has been engaging in play behaviors with his siblings.
Today, Groan is 21 days old. She has been engaging in more play behavior and is starting to jaw spar with Grizz. Both Groan and Grizz were sniffing staff member's shirt after she completed wolf care with Malik and Shadow.
Today, Groan is 20 days old. She had attempted to escape out the wolf lab enclosure space by the corner of the gate. She watched staff exit, then ran for the door and attempted to put her head through the door, but failed in her escape attempt.
The pups are starting to be more active in the adult dominance rank order. Aidan is clearly more serious about the interactions, taking the lead from Shadow and Grizzer. He is quick and intense, requiring more distractions than Denali. Wolf care staff will be developing a list of distractions to keep the pups occupied. These may include hides, food resources, non-toxic and hardy items on which they can practice their predatory skills, even a cardboard box will allow them to vent some behavior and reduce their tendency to make Grizzer into a chew toy.
Shadow continues to be a strong leader to the pack and is very vocal about his status when the pups need dominance. Again, Shadow is the indicator of pack energy. If he is calm, dominance scuffles from the lower ranking wolves don't tend to last as long. If Shadow is stressed, aggression throughout the pack is intensified. It's the staff's job to keep Shadow's anxiety levels as low as possible.
The wolves did well with the recent cold snap last week. Wolf care faced temperatures of – 39 below on 2 mornings, – 32 below on one morning and a warm spell of below and Friday's balmy – 16 below… The wolf care staff are here 7 days a week, 365 days a year to ensure that the wolves have the best care possible. Grizzer's eye wound is healing well and things have been very calm this past week. Maybe it's the cold temperatures keeping the dominance interaction to a minimum, or maybe it's Malik daily aspirin regimen that keeps him happier. Regardless, the pack is calm. Grizzer continues to be very tolerant of the pups, as this week's photo demonstrates.
Aidan continues to show fear aggression to one of the handlers based on a negative experience that he had as a 4-week old pup. Wolves have a much stronger response to negative experiences and it is very difficult to overcome this behavior. This is why we have to be so selective on Nanny applications when we are working with pups. Overall, the remainder of the staff have a good relationship with Aidan, but one of his characteristics is aggressive grabbing when he's insecure. Grizzer did the same thing when he was a pup, now he's a very calm adult. When Aidan finds his role in the pack, his insecurities will likely diminish.
Malik is much more active in the front of the Exhibit, and benefits from the pups association with Grizzer. Especially when the pups have Grizzer occupied. One thing we have noticed, is that Malik gets a lot more grief if the pack is drawn into the holding area. It seems the pack response is to chase Malik when they are back in the Exhibit area. So, until the winter hormonal season declines, the use of the holding area and access to the Retired Enclosure will be limited to Saturday feedings only.
Maya's behavior has calmed a bit, with more social interactions with Shadow and not as much focus on Aidan. Denali gets a few dominance reminders from Denali, possibly because Shadow is showing more significant focus on Denali. The relationships among the wolves dictate the day to day interactions, which is why anyone working at this job is always in training.
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