Axel – In Step With His Packmates

We had a successful Working for Wolves weekend.  Thanks to all the participants and wolf care staff for helping to improve the lives of our ambassador wolves.  In this week’s photo, the three subspecies of the Exhibit pack are shown.  From left to right, Axel, arctic subspecies, Boltz, great plains subspecies and Denali, northwestern subspecies.  We were impressed with the wolves tolerance of the work projects.  Axel spent a fair amount of time watching the projects and was particularly interested in the Saturday afternoon barbeque. 

Luna- On Watch

Luna will not be part of the medical protocol this spring because she received an extensive evaluation and exam last fall after her removal from the Exhibit Pack.   While we still think it was the best decision for Luna and the pups to move her to retirement, it’s been our experience that removal from the Exhibit Pack has two components, the physical change of space and the psychological removal from the pack.  It’s a challenge, especially for high ranking wolves like Luna to be extremely focused when the adjacent pack activity is heightened.  We experienced this in 2002 when Shadow was testing our dominant female, MacKenzie.  Once she lost the psychological connection of leading the pack, she relaxed and became more content in retirement.  While Luna continues to be “On Watch” for those Exhibit Pack moments, we have been noticing more contentment with life in retirement, especially when sharing den space with Grizzer.  For those of you who watch our Youtube channel, the last video showed Luna having some anxiety coming into the Wolf Care Center.  We have worked through that anxiety and she is back on track to enter the building and stand on the scale for regular weighing sessions.  Her last weight was 111 pounds which is consistent with Boltz.  But because of her hip condition, our vet would like her back at 95 pounds.  We have adjusted her feeding schedule and expect to see some weight loss as summer progresses.  Wolves traditionally look much thinner after they shed their undercoat.

Grizzer- The Height Advantage

Grizzer is on top of the “Pack Holding Area” den getting a glimpse of the Exhibit Pack’s many bouts of activity.  We have a visual barrier along the fence line, but due to the nature of our facility design, we have connective chutes and gates that allow easy transport of wolves between enclosures and offer a glimpse of the adjoining packs.  If there’s too much activity, we can always move the wolves to the East Side Retired area where they is no direct view of the Exhibit Pack.  Our preference is to allow them access to all three retired areas.   If you were watching our webcams, you may have noticed that we used the East Side on the last two Thursday mornings to put some distance between the Exhibit Pack and some work crews taking down hazard trees. Fortunately, Grizzer and Luna are getting along quite well and willingly and patiently shared the back habitat during the work projects.  Grizzer seems to be a bit more stable in mobility and his weight has stabilized around 114 pounds allowing us to move forward with some blood work and further evaluation of his knee.  To learn more about Grizzer, consider joining his birthday webinar on May 5th at 6 pm Central.  To register, follow this link. https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/

Grayson – Tails Tell It All

We’ve spoken about Grayson’s confidence when he’s near Aidan and certainly this photo of a T-1 (over the back) tail posture shows this confidence as Aidan does a ride-up behavior on Denali.   It’s been a long year, watching Grayson struggle with the focus of Denali and turn to Aidan for comfort.  Now, it appears that Aidan is far more than comfort, he is a source of power for Grayson.  This is why we say every pup introduction is different due to the dynamics of the pack they will join.  As the spring advances, we are seeing less ritualized dominance that can result in tension and more social rallies that result in tail wags and wolves in unison.  Grayson did better than Axel during the 17th April medical exams, he definitely sees the Wolf Care Center as a source of comfort.  Both recovered well and Aidan welcomed them back within 6 hours of their procedures (I just posted a Youtube video showing the pups being reunited with Aidan).   I received many questions as to why we choose to neuter the pups.  The Center is not a breeding facility and we started in 1989 before many of the birth control methods were proven effective or safe for use in wolves.  Our USDA Vet Care Plan established neutering and spaying as the recommended method for reproductive control to avoid overpopulating our Exhibit or having pups with no homes.  On a 4-year rotation, we acquire pups from other facilities to aid in our educational mission.  We chose to work with three different subspecies (arctic subspecies, northwestern subspecies and great plains subspecies) to highlight the varied geography and distribution of wolves in North America.  The three subspecies wouldn’t meet geographically in the wild, so allowing breeding in captivity between the subspecies would produce a cross that would be uncharacteristic of their wild counterparts.  None of the three subspecies are candidates for release in the wild, so any captive born wolf would stay in captivity, and demand in captivity may vary.   Our wolves serve as ambassadors to the wild and our management philosophy is to work with the safest and most effective physical care while paying attention to every detail that helps form a cohesive pack of wolves.  To help us celebrate Axel and Grayson’s birthday on May 2, 2017, follow this link to register for their birthday webinar. https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/

Denali- A Winter Coat on a Spring Day

Of all the ambassador wolves, Grizzer and Denali have the thickest winter pelage.  The difference is, Grizzer is starting the annual shedding process, but Denali looks like he’s holding out for a bit more winter.  Since there is snow in our forecast, Denali might be better prepared for the unpredictable nature of spring in Minnesota.  During the April 17th medical exams, Denali had a dental inspection in addition to all the other bloodwork and tests required by your USDA Vet Care Plan.  He has worn down one of his pre-molars and we knew from a previous exam that he had broken a front incisor.  Both issues show no sign of infection or concern. His bloodwork is excellent and shows no signs of changes to his thyroid function that can be an issue for older wolves. Webinar participants celebrated Aidan and Denali’s 9th birthday on Thurday the 27th with more activity from the Eagles, Ravens and Turkey vultures than from the birthday boys.

Boltz- Seasonal Submission

Boltz has a fair amount of testing behavior that increased as the winter set in.  With the onslaught of warmer weather, comes a change in hormones and tolerances.  Boltz is much more submissive to Aidan and quite social with wolf care staff.  Boltz did extremely well with his medical exam completed on the 17th of April.  Wolf care staff modified immobilization techniques to address Boltz’s intimidation of staff and he had a very smooth exam.  These exams are very important to identify any issues that may not be apparent through physical or behavioral symptoms.  Through blood work, we identified a slight elevation in Boltz’s glucose levels that will prompt additional testing to address any potential issues.  The class of drugs that we use for immobilization do not have dissociative properties, meaning that the wolves will remember and associate circumstances around the event.  This is always a concern and is the reason we have a detailed plan of procedures, personnel, separation of wolves and protocol for reuniting the pack.  After the immobilization, we were very pleased to see that Boltz showed no avoidance behavior to the staff or the holding facilities used during the exam.   Boltz is maintaining a consistent and healthy weight of 110 pounds.

Axel- More Elongated Muzzle

Being able to distinguish the differences between the 2016 arctic pups has been a challenge since their arrival in May 2016.  Initially, we had a collar on Axel, but the pup scruff to scruff (and paw to scruff) wrestling made it problematic to use a collar, so we switched to painting toenails.  This also became problematic as the pups heightened sense of smell was aroused the minute the cap was taken off the bottle even in a deep sleep.  Fortunately, the personalities began to develop and there were some significant differences in how the pups responded to their external environment.  Axel was typically investigating and facing the consequences while Grayson was content to observe before acting.  No doubt, the wolf that is wearing the birch bark as a hat was usually Axel, that was almost a year ago.  Now, as he matured to a yearling, Axel has a much more narrow, elongated muzzle and there are some significant white patterns around his eyes to aid with the physical identification and his behavioral patterns haven’t changed much.  To learn more about Axel and Grayson, join us for their 1-year Birthday webinar on May 2, 2017 at 6 pm Central.  Follow this link to register, https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/.

Aidan – Hard to Hide With Curious Pups

It is Aidan and Denali’s Birthday today.  They had a stimulating start to their day by being moved to the East Side Retired area so we could cut some hazard trees in the enclosure.  The Center will resume summer hours on May 15th which means 7 day a week viewing.  It’s important that we get as much work done while we have the freedom to draw the wolves off for a few hours.  Once we are open, we rarely bring them off display except for a few hours on the Working for Wolves weekend.  As the weather warms, the wolves are showing more of these “hide and ambush” behaviors.  They are usually accompanied by tail wagging by both the instigator and the receiver.  Of course, warmer weather is relative.  This photo taken over the weekend is not representative of the weather today.  Northern Minnesota was blanketed with sleet yesterday and now snow today.  On Monday April 17th, we conducted a medical exam as part of our USDA Vet Care protocol.  Unfortunately, Aidan was a bit too stressed about the pack (mainly pups) being separated and despite a required dose to immobilize him, he did not show the level of sedation safe for an exam.  His role is extremely important in this pack and we chose to allow him to stay in the Exhibit and reversed the drug that was injected.  We will look at another opportunity to complete his exam later in the season when the pack displays a more calming nature due to the seasonal influence of prolactin hormone.  Clips of the wolves reuniting after the exam will be featured on our Youtube channel this week. 

Luna – The Last of the Posessions

The Exhibit Pack is scheduled for an immobilization and complete medical exam on Monday April 17th, but Luna and Grizzer will wait a few weeks until they lose some undercoat and risk less heat stress from the warmer weather and a trip to the Vet clinic.  So, how does the Exhibit Pack immobilization affect Luna?  The Exhibit Pack will be moved into the Retired Area for the initial immobilization, so Luna’s caches have to go.  As you may have read in the past, Luna is very food possessive, so this needed to be done with Luna waiting less than patiently in the Pack Holding Area.  Wolf care staff filled 2 scat pails with hides and bones to reduce the risk for the pack.  Luna will be able to build her cache again, but a summer cache is never as attractive as a winter cache.

Grizzer – Showing Improvement

Thanks to those concerned viewers who have been emailing about Grizzer’s back right leg issue and his time away from the webcam.  I always welcome emails and am most grateful that people care about our ambassadors as much as our wolf care staff.  Determining the cause and subsequent treatment for Grizzer’s leg has many issues that are impacted by his age and overall health condition.  Every decision is made with an assessment of implications and alternatives, especially related to risk assessment.  Our Vet has several aspects of treatment that we are trying, but they all begin with documentation and observation.  Medications are prescribed and staff work diligently to document even the slightest change with each treatment by analyzing video.  This week’s image is clipped from video assessment on Monday, April 10th.   Initially, because the timing correlated with the increased activity with Luna, our vet wanted to rule out the cause as an “Acute Sports Injury”.  Typically, these injuries diminish with a short duration anti-inflammatory.  In Grizzer’s case, we documented limited change with an anti-inflammatory, indicating that it may be more characteristic of an age-related ailment.  He was switched to an analgesic, to address pain issues and he seems to be improving.  In this photo, he is standing on his right leg to do an RLU (raised-leg urination).  This is a noticeable improvement and we hope this allows him to feel better and improve his overall health so we can prepare him for immobilization and a trip to the vet clinic.  We also decided to reunite Grizzer and Luna as pack mates.  While they were separated, Grizzer showed a bit of anxiety about the separation, and anxiety is not a path to improving overall health.  They are now utilizing all three retirement areas and the webcam is focused on the largest area known as the “East Side” Retirement area.