Pigeons were donated by the Wildlife Science Center from an eradication effort at the Minneapolis Airport and were used in an enclosure enrichment. Text was written by Working for Wolves participants Wendy Watson, Andi Nelsen, Joyce Wells, and Ann Rasberry: Even though he is the omega Aidan still shows confidence with raised leg urinations, scrapes, and ears pricked forward. Despite being reminded by Maya of his status he is still an active member of the pack. Maya keeps stalking him and leaving him up in the woods but Aidan is becoming smarter about getting down to the front of the exhibit without her seeing him.
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On Thursday, the Center's Educational Program staff sent an emergency call to Curator, Lori Schmidt, Lakota had somehow gotten into the Exhibit Pack and was being chased around the pond. Fortunately, wolf care staff were only minutes away. Curator, Lori Schmidt entered the enclosure, and walked Lakota back into the retired area. The pack was actually quite calm, but Lakota did get a bite wound on the hip, likely from Shadow. Visitors to the Exhibit shared some photos, and it appears that Lakota was sleeping adjacent to the gate in the pack holding area, with her tail through the fence. It's uncertain who initiated the interaction, but activity at the gate (where Lakota was sleeping) broke the latch, and the side gate opened. Photos show Shadow and Malik as the lead in dominance activity, likely because they were the initial wolves to send her into retirement. Observers said one of the pups may have been running along side, but there was no indication of increased arousal from the pups. Once Lakota was back in retirement, Assistant Curator, Donna Prichard cleaned her wounds, and wolf care staff rotated shifts to provide 24 hour a day coverage to monitor her condition throughout the weekend. She is back up and moving around, as her video shows, and she is even approaching the Exhibit Pack, but she now has restricted access to the pack holding area until a seperate gate system is constructed. When staff are in the lab, she can be in the wolf yard, always attended. When staff aren't in the lab, she is locked back in retirement. She is a bit disappointed with this, even though she got a bite in the hip, she still looks into the Exhibit Pack Enclosure. But Thursday's activity is why we made the management decision not to introduce her into the pack, but to manage her as a lone wolf.
Written by assistant wolf curator, Donna Prichard:<br> While Aidan seems to have many similar behavior and characteristics of Shadow, this seems to be the case with Denali and Grizzer. Like Grizzer, Denali is very food oriented. The pups are still being fed approximately once a day, in addition to the weekly What’s For Dinner feeding. Denali & Aidan’s appetites are very good, though Aidan does tend to get easily distracted when staff are feeding him. Through the week, Denali and Aidan are currently eating ground beef or chicken. At one feeding, the pups consumed 22 large chicken thighs and six lbs. of ground beef! Needless to say, growing pups have voracious appetites, and it is evident when we see how fast Denali is growing and gaining weight. At this point in time, we predict that Denali will probably weigh more than Grizzer did at six months of age.
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.
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.
Grizzer's head wounds are healing well, with the exception of a small area that had a suture pulled by Maya's grooming behavior. I have been asked, why not pull Grizzer off the Exhibit until he has fully healed? The answer is, if I took Grizzer out and left Denali in, Denali would think he won, and would likely never let Grizzer back in. Even in the short time while Grizzer was immobilized, Denali was in the Exhibit raised leg urinating and marking, until we had Grizzer safely in the lab and we moved Denali into holding. Grizzer needs the confidence to be a dominant wolf, and he gets this confidence from Maya and Aidan.
The introduction of Denali back into the pack occurred on Monday the 27th. The details of the introduction will be included on Denali's logs. From Aidan's perspective, he has shown strong interest in Denali, and has been very social to him. We also know things are calm because Aidan has no problems eating the extra food with the pack (Maya can be guarding of food when there's pack tension), and a surveillance video posting on Youtube this week shows Maya rolling on her back with Aidan.
We are very pleased with the results of the Name the Pup contest. Botlz is a great name and fits his personality well. Our thanks to the individual that submitted the name and all the people who voted. Boltz had several howling sessions this week with Aidan and Denali and continues to be strongly bonded to Oscar, Aidan and Denali. Luna is still on restricted activity, so when she and Boltz do get together, the staff work very hard to keep her from re-injuring herself. Hopefully after next week's x-rays, we can allow them to be together again. Here are Boltz's weights since the last posting.<li> Date Days Old Weight<li> 6/4/2012 80 25.2<li> 6/5/2012 81 25.7<li> 6/6/2012 82 25.3<li> 6/7/2012 83 26.4
Boltz is 3 months old and at the age when we would normally be ready for an introduction. He remains extremely submissive with Adian and Denali, but every so often he likes to climb on Oscar and pin him. Oscar takes it in stride, but it is definitely a behavior we will be watching. Boltz continues to have some shyness when new people arrive, but if you give him space, it doesn't take long for his curiosity to take over. Here are the weights since the last posting: <li>6/8/2012 84 26.7<li> 6/9/2012 85 26.9<li> 6/10/2012 86 27.6<li> 6/11/2012 87 28<li> 6/12/2012 88 28.7<li> 6/13/2012 89 29.5<li> 6/14/2012 90 29.2<li> 6/15/2012 91 30.4
If you watched the Youtube video this week, you may have noticed that Grizzer is extremely tolerant (and seems to enjoy) multiple wolf care staff brushing him. He's nearly completed the shedding process, and is back to his lean figure. Grizzer gets a lot of meals that are leftover from feeding the pups, so the lean figure may change as we still have over a month of pup care.
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