Maya is doing well, with less focus on Aidan and more focus on courting Shadow. Of course, her idea of courting may involve jaw sparring. She has been much more social with wolf care staff and has been greeting with more social behavior towards the pack. Her behavior will likely peak in February before calming again in spring. Her response to Shadow is usually one of submission. Although, if there's a chase in the pack, she's stimulated to a more predatory mode, which can involve Aidan.
Due to the weekend blizzard and the resulting time spent shoveling and blowing snow, the wolf logs will all be the same today. Despite windchills in the 30 to 40 below range and nearly a foot of snow, the wolves are doing great. These are animals that are clearly adapted to winter environments and they are much more comfortable than during a warm summer day. Staff provide straw beds to give them a comfortable place to rest and insulates them from the cold ground, the dens are dry and well covered in straw, but unless the wind is bad, the wolves usually don't use the densites. Staff make sure there are plenty of scraps available for a quick snack, and the water heaters are monitored daily to ensure there is always a fresh, warm source of water. We are aware of some issues with the pond cam's exposure problems, and we are doing some adjusting to see if we can repair it, thanks for your emails about the issue. I hope to get a youtube video posted later in the week, filmed on a -26 below morning to show the activity levels of the wolves in these temperatures.
Due to the weekend blizzard and the resulting time spent shoveling and blowing snow, the wolf logs will all be the same today. Despite windchills in the 30 to 40 below range and nearly a foot of snow, the wolves are doing great. These are animals that are clearly adapted to winter environments and they are much more comfortable than during a warm summer day. Staff provide straw beds to give them a comfortable place to rest and insulates them from the cold ground, the dens are dry and well covered in straw, but unless the wind is bad, the wolves usually don't use the densites. Staff make sure there are plenty of scraps available for a quick snack, and the water heaters are monitored daily to ensure there is always a fresh, warm source of water. We are aware of some issues with the pond cam's exposure problems, and we are doing some adjusting to see if we can repair it, thanks for your emails about the issue. I hope to get a youtube video posted later in the week, filmed on a -26 below morning to show the activity levels of the wolves in these temperatures.
Denali is a very active pup that constantly seeks attention and interaction from staff. He certainly reminds staff of Grizzer at that age. The pups do spend a fair amount of time wrestling, and Denali is usually squashing Aidan (an ethogram term when one wolf sits on another). Denali has been a bit jumpy on staff, but with proper handling procedures, he is quick to stop. Most of his behavior is an effort to get attention, and staff need to be very skilled at interpreting behavior when working with the dynamics of 6 wolves. To stimulate the pack, we did two enclosure enrichments last week, one was scent based that resulted in scent rolling behavior, the other was food based that stimulated the wolves to search and find treats. A YouTube video showing both enclosure enrichment activities will be posted.
Maya is the scent rolling queen. Her video this week shows her response to scent stimulus, doing a full roll on back behavior for several minutes. This is good for the pups; When Maya's occupied, things are calmer here. We do see her dominance increase if there's activity around the wolf yard, and if there's a howling bout. Aidan continues to be the focus of Maya's dominance, but he is taking it in stride. When he sees her coming, he submits or tries to climb under some rocks to face her. When she's done, he shakes it off and continues whatever he was doing. The female dominance in inherently more intense than males, even in a spayed and neutered exhibit. This is likely due to the role that the females play in reducing pack overpopulation by having only one female breeding. As I said, spaying only calms this behavior, it doesn't eliminate it. This is why we decided to manage only one female, if we had two females in this pack, the aggression would be much more intense. To stimulate the pack, we did two enclosure enrichments last week, one was scent based that resulted in scent rolling behavior, the other was food based that stimulated the wolves to search and find treats. A YouTube video showing both enclosure enrichment activities will be posted.
In this week's video and YouTube posting, you will see Shadow rolling in the fresh snow. This brought a different response from each wolf. Denali was more inclined to jump on Shadow, while Aidan was more timid, reaching for Shadow and grooming him, but not attempting to assert dominance on him. Aidan still remains strongly bonded with Shadow, and is often observed with Shadow on the den sites or interacting throughout the enclosure.
Shadow enjoys fresh snow, and this winter has started out to be an enjoyable one for him. In this week's video, Shadow is so excited about fresh snowfall that he does a "Roll on Back" behavior for several minutes. As we have stated in previous logs, Shadow has to be cautious when he is in a vulnerable position. When you are a dominant wolf, being on your back can be perceived by others as submitting. Fortunately, Shadow can still do a threat display when he's down and is quick to escape the attentions of the pack. When he is really excited, he bolts around the enclosure, jumping over rocks, logs, stumps and even other wolves. This gets a chase scene going, and then the dominance tension starts up between Malik and Grizzer and Maya and Aidan, taking the focus off of Shadow.
Lucas did well in the puppy pen while a tree was being felled in retirement. He spent most of his time digging up old cache's. He even spent time stealing cache's that Lakota hid today.
Lucas was very active today. He was chewing on a deer leg cashe he hid behind the den boxes, and then went inside his den. In this picture you can notice how light colored he has become, and his almond shape eyes… typically a wolf trait.
We had a little problem with video editing this morning, so all the logs will be the same and we hope to get video in the logs and a new Youtube video posted by the end of the week. The fall colors have been tremendous in the enclosure, and thanks to local moose hunters, we gave the pack a moose head mid-week. The pups were actively feeding on the moose head, but soon cached it, and have not been back on it since. They consumed an entire deer this weekend, despite the warmer than average weather conditions.
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