Maya gets a break from Denali as well, and her response is to rest and relax. This makes for a good response from Aidan as well, who sleeps in the den with Maya on a nightly basis.
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The retired enclosure has really benefited from the recent heat and rain. Vegetation is very lush and provides a lot of area for the wolves to get some relief from the heat and bugs. Malik and Shadow enjoyed a deer torso and have had a great appetite this summer.
As the male rank order becomes less intense, Malik has more reason to relax. In this week’s video, you will see him comfortably resting in a straw bed. He still watches from afar when Grizzer and Maya interact, but he doesn’t show as much anxiety at the sounds of these ritualized dominance displays.
During this week, Grizzer has been showing lots of interest in the inuit dog puppies that wolf care staff are using for the canine cousins program. He is often down by the gate whining at them. Another thing that the wolf watch participants had observed, is Grizzer running early in the morning, chasing Maya and Shadow in a playful behavior.
Staff continue to comment on Grizzer's size. He's matured to his full adult size and as his winter coat begins to grow in, he appears massive. He stands at least an inch taller than Shadow, and has a much broader head. Fortuntately for all, he maintains a very calm demeanor. Although, he may like to display a few dominance behaviors as shown in Maya's video this week. Grizzer's video demonstrates the physiological design of wolves that allows for flexibility of their scapula or shoulder, to direct register their tracks so their front feet and back feet align perfectly.
Shadow remains confident and social. Of all the wolves in the exhibit, staff is most often greeted by Shadow and he continues to display play bows to Grizzer and Maya stimulating them to chase or roll around together. This is very uncharacterisitic for Shadow, but it makes for a calm and peaceful exhibit.
Shadow had a recent bout with a probable yeast infection in his ear. Grizzer and Malik may have had the same thing. Grizzer was treated every day, since he'd sit there for the treatment. Shadow and Malik would run the other way when they saw the bottle, needless to say, they didn't get much for treatment. Occassionally, wolf care staff would bait Shadow and Malik with a meatball outside the fence while another staff person would come up from behind and deilver the ointment. This trick only worked a few times before Shadow caught on and refused to turn his back on the staff. It appears that Shadow and Malik's ears are better (they're holding them erect, before they held them to the side). Grizz's are cleaner than ever. It may have been the frost killing the last plants and associated pollens, or it may have been the recent cleaning of the pond and associated algae, either way, everyone has perky ears and no signs of irritation.
We're in the process of writing a 1-page flyer describing each wolf, to help visitors tell them apart. I can't help but describe Grizzer as big… Even if he's not near Maya for a size comparison, he seems to just have a large presence that's noticeable. He's doing extremely well with staff, but has a bit of a tendency to bite while he's teething. All of his permanent teeth have erupted, but he still has a canine milk tooth that's waiting to fall out. So, he's officially a 5 canine wolf. Staff have been trying to jiggle it to see if it will move, but so far, it won't budge. We put a box of moose bones in the pen on Saturday to give him something to chew on.
The retired wolves had their medical exam on Friday October 8th. The rain held off until after the exam was complete and made for a nice cool recovery rather than the warmer than normal fall we've been experiencing. The injections went extremely well with all wolves essentially lying down and showing limited response to the injection. The immobilization was extremely smooth, I would classify it as textbook. I don't think the drugging could have gone off better. The lab was fantastic to have tables set up to process the wolves, much better than the auditorium floor or outside in the slightly drizzling day. Lucas's exam revealed more tartar build up on his teeth and his upper molars are starting to show some signs of decay. He had some noticeable mucle loss around his front right scapula (shoulder) and showed some muscle tightening around his hip joints. He has a dead upper incisor tooth (right central, but it's still solid. An eye exam revealed the start of calcium/lipid deposits on his cornea similar to MacKenzies, but just slight spots. The IOP (glaucoma test ) was 17 mm hg which is considered good. It appears that Lucas broke a toenail completely off on his left hind paw (outer toe) when? who knows, but it's healed now. I'm not sure how we missed that during the regular checks, although they do have alot of hair covering their nails. He had been licking it, there were saliva stains on his paw, in between his toes. His coat was good, and he appeared to be in great condition.
Malik seems to be avoiding the situations that make him vulnerable to Shadow. Today during a wolf check, he decided to stay on top of the hill and defend a beaver carcass, while Shadow supervised a pup dominance pile.
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