The wolf logs for the Exhibit Pack will contain the same text, due to extra time needed for Lakota (see Lakota's log). The Exhibit Pack is doing well, consuming a lot of food and spending quite a bit of time in and on the new den. The wolf care staff heard wild wolves howl several times on Saturday's overnight, which may explain why Shadow has been doing so many lone defensive howls lately. Aidan appears to be catching up to Denali's weight, and the pups continue to eat on a daily basis, either a carcass with the pack on Saturdays and Wednesday's or daily chicken, beef or venision during the other evenings.
The wolf logs for the Exhibit Pack will contain the same text, due to extra time needed for Lakota (see Lakota's log). The Exhibit Pack is doing well, consuming a lot of food and spending quite a bit of time in and on the new den. The wolf care staff heard wild wolves howl several times on Saturday's overnight, which may explain why Shadow has been doing so many lone defensive howls lately. Aidan appears to be catching up to Denali's weight, and the pups continue to eat on a daily basis, either a carcass with the pack on Saturdays and Wednesday's or daily chicken, beef or venision during the other evenings.
Lately, wolf care staff have observed that Aidan’s anxiety seems to have lessened over the past week or so. Perhaps this is because Maya has decreased her dominance towards him and has been observed in pair bonding behavior with Aidan. On two occasions last week, Maya and Aidan were observed parallel gaiting with each other. Aidan has been much more social this week with both his packmates and the wolf care staff.
Today Nyssa is 59 days old. Nyssa has been eating very well, and has also been very calm during programs. She chews on various toys or sleeps during most of them. During the evening a thunderstorm passed by, but Nyssa seemed unphased and slept in the dogloo throughout the night.
Nyssa initiates play with her littermates. She can physically keep up and is often observing running the length of the puppy pen with her packmates. Pup behavior includes: stalking, pouncing and playbowing, all very strong predatory skills.
Today Maya is 81 days old. In the morning, she and Nyssa discovered a little toad that entered the puppy pen and immediately tried to put a paw on him. She tried to bite him and learned her lesson the hard way…"never chew on something slimy…it may pee on you!!!
Shadow and Maya still maintain a strong bond with pair bonding behavior, head and chin rests and general close contact. This is encouraging since Maya became a bit more reserved after the pup introduction, she seems to be relaxing with Shadow and returning to her normal behavior. Shadow is very watchful of the pups during their feeding time, he accompanies them into the pack holding area, and stays with them until after they return to the Exhibit.
Similar to the intial introduction day, Maya chose not to come into holding on the pups reintroduction to the pack after their surgery recovery. She whined at the gate and waited, but did interact with them upon their arrival back. She developed a slight limp yesterday afternoon, no doubt from an over exhuberant chase around the pond. There's no indication of an external injury, just some muscle stiffness. Staff will be montitoring her several times a day and treat accordingly.
In the form of a true leader, Shadow reminded the pups of their status at the reitroduction session. He exhibited a controlled, but firm muzzle bite and the pups responded with submissive postures and rollovers. In the main exhibit, Aidan followed Shadow and was very in tune with his behavior. Separation of pups seems to work well, but the rank order is so tight, that separation of adults can result in a wolf perceiving that the other wolf dispersed, making it difficult to separate adults for any length of time.
We built the new den in the Exhibit Pack yesterday, and Aidan did much better with the construction noise and equipment than Denali. He even dug in the den between loads of rock deliveries. Aidan continues to align with Shadow and he is very quick to submit to any adult wolf. The video clips posted with the wolf logs are very short, if you would like to see several minutes of the pack activitiy, we are now posting weekly videos on Youtube. To locate these videos, search for the International Wolf Center.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.