During Lakota's recent illness, Lucas was observed playbowing to her and attempting to stimulate her into play behavior. He was very tolerant of her condition and frequently greeted her in the denbox. His calm demeanor has been noted since he was a pup and continues through old age.
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Shadow's logs note the increased social behavior towards staff and his contentment with the pups and their interactions. Shadow is clearly the dominant force in this exhibit.
What can I say about Grizzer. Everyday is a new adventure and wolf care staff need to be very aware of Grizzer's attitude on any given day. As he learns the power associated with his size, he begins to test the things he believes he can master. Wolf care staff will be having an upcoming handling meeting to discuss the boundaries established with the pack and the individual handling techniques to use on each individual wolf. As you can imagine, Grizzer gets a few pages of the training manual dedicated to him.
Malik's knee is doing fine, this is evident by the continued racing around the pond behavior he displays (probably why his knee hurt in the first place). On Saturday, the 11th of December, Intern Erin Albers noticed a pack mob of Malik. Malik "zoomed" around the enclosure 2 times, then stopped twice and was put in a submissive position by mostly Shadow. Grizzer had him by the scruff of the neck each time.
Began to feed with Esbilac formula with an eye dropper instead of goat's milk formula because of diarrhea. Results of the vet's ananlysis of stools showed they were completely clean.
Increasing coordination-was scratching his ear with his hind foot. Chewing on a piece of cloth. Feeding behaviors continue to improve. Suckling response has been regular and strong.
Today, Groan is 22 days old and like Grizz also has exhibited head shaking with play toys, a feeding behavior seen in wolves when they are tearing open a carcass. Groan frequently displays aggressive behavior towards her littermates and handlers by growling when she is displeased.
Grizz rolled over on his back and allowed Nubee to stand over him and grab his leg. He also licked her muzzle.
Nyssa has the same log entries each week. She dominates the carcass during feeding time and fends off attention from Maya that may lead to the pack focusing on her. The contrast of Nyssa in the snow is very striking. On several occassions as we review photos we have to look twice to be sure it's not an old picture of MacKenzie. Nyssa is a great addition to the Exhibit pack.
Malik has been doing some intensive playbows to the pups as well as to Shadow. He seems a bit intimidated when Shadow starts riding up or dominating him. He has an interest in the pups, but doesn't seem as preoccupied with them as Shadow. Shadow seems to be developing a pattern of checking the pups. Every couple of hours, he seemed to get up, physically approach and sniff the pups (sometimes waking them up to play), walk the perimeter of the enclosure and then lay back down by the building.
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