Grizzer is showing a lot of confidence this week, and wolf care staff are making a lot of effort to spend time with him. For the first time since Denali's reintroduction, Grizzer has allowed Denali to greet wolf care staff without driving him away. This is a reflection of his confidence with allowing lower ranking wolves to be greeted. This is a common occurrence in wolf packs, and we had significantly more issues with this behavior when Shadow first established himself as the Exhibit Pack leader in the winter of 2002. He wouldn't allow any wolf care staff to greet Lakota without showing some aggressive dominance to Lakota, at least Grizzer just chases Denali. Of course, that might be Grizzer's problem, he's a passive leader, which often doesn't gain the respect of lower ranking wolves.
One email suggestion to help pack dynamics referenced the idea of wolf care staff playing games with the wolves. While we addressed this during the Youtube video about how rough wolves can play and the safety hazards this would create for wolf care staff, we do know that Malik would be excited to play keep the hat away from the Curator. Since he's been successful at taking the hat on three occasions, he tries to grab it at every opportunity possible, including during feedings, when the den straw is being raked or whenever it appears hands are busy. If we didn't have to worry about him eating the hat and the wool binding his intestines, we would just give him the hat. But, it's a bit cold to be giving away good wool hats.
Maya has shown some strong bonding with Grizzer and clearly associates as a dominant pair. Although, in the last few days, she has been asserting dominance over Grizzer, with some intense growls. Grizzer is very passive to her and just takes it in stride with no response. This is the time of the year that Maya shows the most conflicted behavior, one minute she is rubbing against another wolf, trying to pair bond, another minute later, she is pinning them to the ground (Aidan only), or doing a ride up behavior with an intensity one wouldn't expect from a wolf of her size. We have one word for this behavior, and it's not in the Ethogram, we call it hormones.
Sorry for the delay, a power outage seemed to take out the internet connection on Friday night and it continued through the weekend. So, the wolf logs will be all the same this week as we have already moved into a new week and 2 snowstorms have resulted in another foot of snow to clear from the wolf yard, the gates, the fences and den sites. It’s been a calm week. We are trying four different techniques to keep the pack in a lower stress environment. We continue to feed the Exhibit pack small amount of chicken Monday through Friday with a deer carcass or beaver on Saturday nights. We also are using Dog Appeasing Pheromone spray in straw beds daily, making sure there is always fresh straw available. We have added a supplement to their daily meds called Anxitane® (L-Theanine) Chewable Tablets, a green tea derivative, donated by the manufacturer that promotes this product as an all natural product to reduce stress related responses to environmental issues. The 4th issue relates to wolf care interaction, we make sure Grizzer gets the attention first as the dominant male of the pack. The retired wolves have had a good week, despite a renewed spot on Malik’s cheek, they are active, play bowing, eating both chicken and deer legs, and overall, not acting like wolves approaching eleven years of age.
Denali continues to show some real excitement towards the pups. It's much different than Aidan, who is calmer, whines at the fence, but doesn't jump excitably or show a high tail response to the pups. It's this behavior that has prompted me to design a plan where the pups meet Aidan first.
Aidan's focus on the pups has intensified. He is quick to come to the fence if the pups are whining and watches interactions frequently. His pigmentation on his nose is returning and it certainly looks like we are the right track to solving this Lupus condition.
Sorry for the delay, a power outage seemed to take out the internet connection on Friday night and it continued through the weekend. So, the wolf logs will be all the same this week as we have already moved into a new week and 2 snowstorms have resulted in another foot of snow to clear from the wolf yard, the gates, the fences and den sites. It’s been a calm week. We are trying four different techniques to keep the pack in a lower stress environment. We continue to feed the Exhibit pack small amount of chicken Monday through Friday with a deer carcass or beaver on Saturday nights. We also are using Dog Appeasing Pheromone spray in straw beds daily, making sure there is always fresh straw available. We have added a supplement to their daily meds called Anxitane® (L-Theanine) Chewable Tablets, a green tea derivative, donated by the manufacturer that promotes this product as an all natural product to reduce stress related responses to environmental issues. The 4th issue relates to wolf care interaction, we make sure Grizzer gets the attention first as the dominant male of the pack. The retired wolves have had a good week, despite a renewed spot on Malik’s cheek, they are active, play bowing, eating both chicken and deer legs, and overall, not acting like wolves approaching eleven years of age.
Sorry for the delay, a power outage seemed to take out the internet connection on Friday night and it continued through the weekend. So, the wolf logs will be all the same this week as we have already moved into a new week and 2 snowstorms have resulted in another foot of snow to clear from the wolf yard, the gates, the fences and den sites. It’s been a calm week. We are trying four different techniques to keep the pack in a lower stress environment. We continue to feed the Exhibit pack small amount of chicken Monday through Friday with a deer carcass or beaver on Saturday nights. We also are using Dog Appeasing Pheromone spray in straw beds daily, making sure there is always fresh straw available. We have added a supplement to their daily meds called Anxitane® (L-Theanine) Chewable Tablets, a green tea derivative, donated by the manufacturer that promotes this product as an all natural product to reduce stress related responses to environmental issues. The 4th issue relates to wolf care interaction, we make sure Grizzer gets the attention first as the dominant male of the pack. The retired wolves have had a good week, despite a renewed spot on Malik’s cheek, they are active, play bowing, eating both chicken and deer legs, and overall, not acting like wolves approaching eleven years of age.
Sorry for the delay, a power outage seemed to take out the internet connection on Friday night and it continued through the weekend. So, the wolf logs will be all the same this week as we have already moved into a new week and 2 snowstorms have resulted in another foot of snow to clear from the wolf yard, the gates, the fences and den sites. It’s been a calm week. We are trying four different techniques to keep the pack in a lower stress environment. We continue to feed the Exhibit pack small amount of chicken Monday through Friday with a deer carcass or beaver on Saturday nights. We also are using Dog Appeasing Pheromone spray in straw beds daily, making sure there is always fresh straw available. We have added a supplement to their daily meds called Anxitane® (L-Theanine) Chewable Tablets, a green tea derivative, donated by the manufacturer that promotes this product as an all natural product to reduce stress related responses to environmental issues. The 4th issue relates to wolf care interaction, we make sure Grizzer gets the attention first as the dominant male of the pack. The retired wolves have had a good week, despite a renewed spot on Malik’s cheek, they are active, play bowing, eating both chicken and deer legs, and overall, not acting like wolves approaching eleven years of age.
Denali has had far more interactions with staff, but we still struggle to get Grizzer to back off long enough to allow Denali to satiate with food. Grizzer is very possessive of Denali's food, but not Aidan's. This week, we will start to try the holding pen's again, to draw Grizzer and Maya off while we feed Denali. We will do this cautiously, as we don't want the separation to cause any tension. If this doesn't work, we will try additional wolf care staff for feedings to see if we can have enough distractions. Grizzer seeks out the attention of wolf care staff, and if we can give him enough social contact, and scratch his healing head (the new hair growth itches), we can generally keep him occupied long enough to give Denali time to eat. It worked today, and Denali ate 9 pieces of chicken, but with -39 below temperatures, we want Denali to have at least 5 – 7 lbs of food per day.
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