Maya has been showing much more pair bonding behavior with Grizzer, and it seems that she has accepted Grizzer as the dominant male. It is interesting to watch the influence of the social relationships and the alliances that have formed between the Great plains subspecies versus the Northwestern subspecies.
While Denali's testing has decreased, his investigatory behavior has increased. He is very curious about all activity around the enclosure and has been recently spending time in the wooded portion of the enclosure independent of the rest of the pack. He interacts with Aidan, but there's times when he even appears surprised at Aidan's dominance.
Grizzer has had a major set back in his confidence as pack leader. This situation is complicated by the appearance of Maya's indifference to Aidan's increase in status, despite the altercation between them last week. Grizzer and Maya still sleep on the den together, but if Grizzer has to deal with the 2 younger pack mates on his own, his ears go flat back and his tail drops.
In the last few weeks, when time is short, I result to filming at night. Shadow has really enjoyed these nighttime filming sessions and is very animated. He investigates the camera, then jumps and runs short chase scenes around the den. Malik is far more reserved, but his curiosity is stimulated as well. As spring approaches, we look forward to longer days, and warmer days. It is predicted to be -20 below again tonight.
Since Maya's euthanasia, we are seeing some very subdued behavior by both Aidan and Denali, as well as some rank order tension. Their response to each other is very reserved, laying on separate dens, and not engaging unless it's to guard wolf care staff from each other (they have become possessive for attention which is usually a response of young animals to changes in the pack). Aidan has initiated some low throated howls, with Shadow responding, and sometimes Denali joining in. This pack of two is not behaving like a pack that deposed their leaders, but a pack showing separation anxiety at the loss of pack members. While we will never know what happened to Maya, this behavior isn't consistent with wolf initiated injuries.
It was clear to us that Grizzer had lost all confidence and would not be rejoining the Exhibit Pack upon Maya's death. We are giving him a chance to recuperate in the pack holding area, and are building his physical as well as psychological health. Wolf care staff erected a wood barrier facing the Exhibit Pack to give Grizzer some sense of visual cover from Aidan and Denali. This has helped him tremendously and he has been sleeping soundly, probably the most restful sleep he has had since testing began in November. We are in the planning stages for a new enclosure for Grizzer, and haven't ruled out the possibility of some type of visitation arrangements between Grizzer and Shadow. We are also watching Malik very closely, at this point, he shows no fear association towards Grizzer and even though Grizzer deposed him in 2009, Grizzer's lack of confidence now may be a factor in reducing that risk towards Malik. No decisions will be made for a while, Grizzer needs time to recover. Also, summer is the best time for wolf changes to social companions.
If you read Grizzer's log, you may have read where we eluded to the fact that Malik is not showing any fear avoidance towards Grizzer. I would like to make it clear that we would NEVER do anything to jeopardize Malik. If we were to try any social arrangement for Grizzer, it would involve Shadow coming to Grizzer's enclosure to interact, with lots of wolf care staff on hand. We know Shadow still has control over Grizzer, we see it in the way Grizzer paws at the fence and tries to submit over by the retired enclosure. If Grizzer has lost so much confidence without Maya that he is truly subordinate to Shadow without question, then we may have some options. At this point, we are making plans to build a secondary retirement enclosure and will manage Grizzer based on our experience on what is best for him. Social contact is not always best if it affects an individuals confidence.
Shadow has been howling a low throaty howl to Aidan, sometimes joined by Denali. Grizzer and Malik don't join in. It is different than any other howl heard in the pack and it clearly means something to the wolves, unfortunately, we can only observe and interpret our observations. Other than the howling, Shadow is very socially interactive and showing no other behavioral traits in response to the pack dynamics change. He does watch Grizzer when Grizzer approaches the gate that faces retirement, but shows no dominance towards Grizzer. Grizzer is very submissive, pawing at the snow at the edge of the gate, which peaks Shadow's interest, but doesn't stimulate any other behavioral response.
Aidan has been much more reserved than Denali in the last week, staying to the top of the den and making little effort to socially interact with Denali until yesterday. They both started to play again. This morning's wolf check had good social interaction with both individuals and no signs of guarding behavior of staff. Each individual wolf shows their response to separation anxiety in different ways. Aidan seems to be communicating with Shadow in this scenario, while Denali and Grizzer are communicating with each other.
Denali has had a harder time with the separation of Grizzer than Aidan. Denali seeks Grizzer out and has had many howling bouts with him. He has been sleeping near Grizzer's enclosure and is frequently standing near the fence line. A staff member observed the following; "When they were running around Grizzer was standing and biting at the fence then when Denali saw Grizzer standing he ran over there and anded up laying down by Grizzers area". Aidan and Denali are showing no behavioral signs of wolves that deposed their dominant pack members, such as Malik and Shadow showed in 2002. They continue very low throated howls and when they do interact near Grizzer, they don't display high tail postures. I just finished a necropsy for one of the MN DNR Conservation Officers, on a wolf that was killed by other wolves in the wild. He described the scene as lots of tracks, scent marking and scraping of the ground, which is typical when there's a winner in a territorial dispute or a dominance rank change.
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