This week's photo is a clear demonstration of the wolves ability to blend in with their backgrounds. Grizzer is still in his full winter coat, and while the grayish coloration of the rock is a bit atypical of some of the Great Plains subspecies, the concept of camoflauge is easy to understand.
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Pups were selected at the Game farm today. Staff concentrated on getting the pups to eat. Grizz liked to bury his head in people's hair – suckling. This is how he was first convinced to take a bottle.
Nubee let out a small howl on her own. It seemed to have been stimulated by hunger or irritability.
Warmer than normal weather in late August and early September has brought a reoccuring presence of biting flies to the site. Wolf care staff do daily checks on the wolves to look for fly bites, evidence of any injuries or abnormalities. This is especially important for the retired wolves that are going on 12 years of age. Lakota seems to have developed a small lump on her left hind leg. The veterinarian has looked at it and will likely take a tissue biopsy during the October medical exam. It doesn't seem to hinder Lakota's playful personality. She continues to race around the enclosure enticing Lucas and MacKenzie to chase her and has dug herself several tunnels in the enclosure to stay cool on the warm late summer days.
Despite Grizzer's large body size, he still is rather tolerant of sharing food with his siblings. During a recent feeding, Grizzer and Maya ate their deer carcass rather peacefully, while Nyssa decided to take on the arctics. Grizzer has been suffering from the erruption of his permanent teeth. Last Thursday, Center Intern Jen White observed Grizzer franticly pawing at his mouth. Curator, Lori Schmidt went in and checked Grizzzer for obstructions, only to find one of his premolar milk teeth, partially dangling from his gums. Lori extracted the tooth without incident. Thank you to all the Nannies who faithfully conditioned the pups to gum and teeth work. There's also been a bout of allergy/or pond algae based ear infections in the Exhibit pack. This requires ear cleaning and ointment. The puppies are great to work on. They sit patiently while staff cleans their ears with cottonballs and deliver drops. Again, a big thank you to the Nannies who helped condition the pups to this type of handling. Shadow and Malik are another story. We did find that if you wanted Shadow and Malik to run the other way, just pull out the bottle of ear ointment.
Malik has been having trouble with his back right leg. It appears he may have a sprain or a possible ligament injury. Center veterinarian, Dr. Chip Hanson was on site on Thursday the 23rd to deliver the pups vaccinations and inspect Malik's leg. Malik was stared on a 7 day dose of anti-inflammatory, in hopes to relieve some of the pain he's experiencing. He hasn't been putting weight on his foot and hops on 3 legs when he runs. Dr. Hanson will be back on Thursday to reassess the course of treatment. The hope is that this is just a sprain and time will heal this injury. In the meantime, he's been a bit cranky with the puppies. He seems to travel the opposite direction of the puppies.
Maya is incredible sweet natured. When wolf care staff enter the enclosure, she patiently waits for everyone else to finish, then rubs up against the staff's legs to get attention. As suspected, she's showing signs of being the omega of the pack. So far, there's been a few chase scenes with Maya as the focus of the pack, but her timid nature causes her to roll over and submit easily, giving the pack no more reason to chase. She seems to seek out the other pack members looking, following them and actively seeking dominance. It seems important to her to be part of the pack. Nyssa on the other hand….. check her logs to find out.
Shadow has truly changed his personality since the pup introduction. He used to be very timid around strangers and somewhat stand-offish with some of the wolf care handlers, even bark-howling at people he didn't know. Lately, he's been very accepting of all of the behind the scenes visitors and program participants and has willingly accepted two new handlers into the wolf pen. Jen Westlund's partner, Matt Fetterer and Lori Schmidt's partner, Jim Ziburski. Shadow is very social with them both and is the first on the rock to greet. The pups like them as well. It is important to the long-term management of the wolf care program that there are several handlers that can deliver care to the wolves throughout the year. This is a great sign from Shadow who appears to be the most dominant member of the pack.
Lakota is acting like a 2-year old rather than a wolf knocking on the door of 12 years. She has been actively expanding two den holes in the enclosure. The first she started when the pups arrived, the second hole she started under one of the den boxes. Wolf care volunteer, Matt Fetterer climbed into the hole and found the first hole to be over 10 feet deep. She remains healthy and frequently jumps on and off the top of the den box, versus MacKenzie's who's hips aren't strong enough to make the leap.
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