A big wind and rain storm occured right before the Member's Behind the Scenes program. The wolves were very relaxed with the group considering they all had to stand due to the wet bleachers. Curator, Lori Schmidt, had to clear 2 downed trees off the fence due to the storm. The evening's feeding program went well, but Shadow and Malik still aggressivly claim the carcass, but there is plenty of meat for all the wolves."
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Attempted to give Lucas vitamins, but ended up with vitamins to all wolves, but Lucas. (so much for the earlier log comments about vitamins being easy to deliver). Curator, Lori Schmidt, put Lucas in the holding pen alone and attempted to feed the vitamins to Lucas in a meatball. Lucas ate the meat and left the vitamins. After the third meatball, Lucas finally ate his vitamins. June in Ely is the beginning of the bug season. To keep the wolves comfortable in the exhibit and willing to stay in front of the viewing windows, staff provide pine and cedar wood chips near the observation windows. The wood chips (especially cedar oil) seems to act as a natural bug repellent. The wolves are also treated with daily fly ointment on their ear tips to deter biting flies.
Good interactions with all wolves. LS measured pup length for Education Department with only minimal biting of the tape. Mackenzie was very possessive of staff and spent a fair amount of time driving Shadow away, she barred her teeth and growled whenever Shadow approached and was observed following Shadow throughout the enclosure.
Dave Mech and Nancy Gibson were in Ely on Thursday October 5th, for a presentation to the US Forest Service. While in town, they spent time with the pack and fed the pups as scheduled for the Thursday night feeding. They had a great visit not only with the pups, but Dave Mech had great contact with Mackenzie, who can sometimes be rather reserved. This may be related to the status of her position as Alpha female which seems to have elevated since the pups introduction. Mackenzie has a significantly higher tail position in almost all behavioral interactions and her dominance over Lakota has increased as well. It will be interesting to monitor this heightened status as winter approaches. Even though these wolves are spayed and neutered, there are still heightened levels of aggression during the timing of the breeding season. This season could be interesting.
Steve Lokker sent this picture of Grizzer as a puppy. I guess the tree chewing has been a long history.
There isn't too much to report. Over the weekend, the temperatures topped 80 degrees again and led to the wolves being more elusive on the exhibit. Grizzer managed to take the top off of my favorite maple tree on Friday, so enclosure enrichment activities will be stepped up a bit.
Lucas is doing well, no news to report other than the fact that he still prefers sleeping under the cover of the branches of the recent tree felling.
Film crew at the center, Shadow stole the window cleaning bucket from Lori Schmidt (LS), while she was cleaning windows for the film crew. LS retrieved bucket, but it was significantly chewed prior to retrieval.
Lakota has been the center of the yearlings attention again, she is back on antibiotics for a recent bite wound. The yearlings are testing their status with regularity. Mackenzie seems to focus on Shadow when he becomes too intense and actively pursues him to make him submit. Lakota immediately takes advantage of this situation and approaches with high tail looking to get a bite out of Shadow.
Temperatures have been extremely high for Northern Minnesota, often reaching the high 80's (even 90's) and rarely cooling to the 70's at night. The wolves have been attempting to deal with the heat, by panting (evaporating heat and moisture off their tongue), by digging a hole in the dirt to lay on bare ground and by remaining inactive. So, if you visit the Center, your best bet of seeing them active is during the late afternoon, 5 – 7 pm or try one of the evening programs. If you watch the wolves on the web cam, try viewing by 7 am Central time, staff usually sees one if not more wolves on the greeting rock before the sun rises over the building.
The International Wolf Center uses science-based education to teach and inspire the world about wolves, their ecology, and the wolf-human relationship.