Denali is quite a different pup than Aidan. He is much more relaxed and takes the daily ritualized dominance behavior in stride, rarely submitting to anyone. When Aidan hears dominance, he runs and muzzle licks, trying to submit to whoever is interacting. Denali remains more independent, and is observed to associate with Grizzer more than any other adult pack member. Of course, Denali and Aidan spend most of their time wrestling and exhibiting other social behaviors.
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Grizzer continues to amaze us in his calm demeanor. It's like working with a different wolf, and the calmness in the pack is very noticeable, especially for Malik. In past winter's, Malik and Grizzer had so much tension between them that wolf checks were noisy bouts of activity. Now, a wolf check is calm, Malik spends time on the greeting rock, and overall the pack is very relaxed. We will be monitoring this closely, at some point, the calming influence of the pups will wear off for Grizzer.
Maya has become much more relaxed in the last few weeks. The first rush of winter hormones generally results in a higher intensity interaction, but as winter settles in, she is much better with Aidan. We have also started to notice her social bonding behavior with Shadow. This includes parallel gates, intense facial licking and submitting to Shadow. Shadow takes it in stride, but there are times when her ride-up behavior is a bit to much and he dominates her. What's most interesting, is that Aidan is right next to Shadow during these times, and greets Maya when she's submissive to Shadow.
Shadow is having a good winter. Our management plan of keeping the wolf yard clear of strangers really helps him out. We have noticed an increased tolerance for the back door entrance, although he does still spend some time watching this area when we are open to the public. He and Maya have begun some courtship behavior, even though the wolves are spayed and neutered, the wolves do display similar bonding behavior as a mated pair. Shadow continues to show the pups their place in the pack and doesn't appear to favor a pup, they both get the same dominance displays.
Former wolf curator Janice Templeton arrived to assist with the medical exams. The adult wolves were extremely excited about her visit, as well as a positive response from the puppies. Staff readied preparation for medical exams inside auditorium.
Lucas's eye condition seems to have cleared up. He's still a bit stiff getting up in the morning's, but once he moves around he seems to do fine. He's been choosing to sleep under the new branches from the spruce tree, he likes the cover.
Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt helped KDLH-TV 3 Duluth, MN news film a segment updating the progress of the Arctic pups. The pups were very curious at the makeshift photo port at the east gate.
Grizzer has been a hungry pup lately. Though he had a full belly from Sunday night's "What's for Dinner" program, he was very insistent that this piece of left over deer belonged to him. He is a big wolf, still filling out.
Denali continues to gain in size, outpacing Aidan and mirroring Grizzer’s growth rate. Denali doesn’t seem to have a particular association with any one adult wolf, he responds similarly to each one. If there’s food involved, they all need to look out. Denali is much more likely to seek out Aidan when he wants to interact, while Aidan will seek out Shadow. Both pups have integrated well and have been a great addition to the pack. The plan for pups predicted that the focus would be on the young and not the aging 8 years old, and so far, the plan is working. A new YouTube video has been posted showing scenes from the early winter in Ely.
It seems like we repeat this in every log, but Grizzer is still very calm and incredibly tolerant of pups that are not so kind in return. We keep thinking that this will wear off, but so far, we see no change in his behavior. One thing about wolf work is that every personality is different and the social relationships between wolves can greatly affect behavior, so there is never a standard of what to expect. This is why the study of Ethology is such a great profession. We are offering an ethology course next summer if you’re interested in learning more, check out the Program section of the website, look for the link Wolf Seminars. A new YouTube video has been posted showing scenes from the early winter in Ely.
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