Pups were introduced into the main exhibit. The following is a summary of the observations from the behavioral team: Team 1: Carol Moore, Joyce Powers, Debra Mendrick Team 2: Claire Belle, Jeanette Howard, Kara Milnes Team 3: Jessica Reihing, Susan Toochin, Dari Quirk, Kristine Radermacher As a result of intensive play behavior between Lakota and the pups, Mackenzie forced Lakota to submit on two separate occasions. During the first encounter at 8:30 am, Lakota vocalized several yelps as Mackenzie grabbed the scruff of Lakota's neck and her hind quarters. After dominating, Mackenzie stood over Lakota several times before allowing her to retreat with tucked tail into the wooded area. During the dominance encounters, the pups looked on and attempted to charge Lakota while Mackenzie had her down. When Lakota got up and charged the pups, they run with tucked tail, generally with shadow showing more fear than Malik. Later in the day, another encounter between Lakota and Mackenzie resulted in a similar response. Lakota tried to steal a bone from the pups, Mackenzie barked a short quick bark and Lakota submitted, whining the entire time. Mackenzie displayed a similar behavior to Lucas over food, but Mackenzie didn't bark at Lucas. During an 8 hour observation shift from 11 pm to 7 am, the observation crew observed 7 aggressive interactions between Lakota and Mackenzie and 7 aggressive interactions between Lucas and Mackenzie. All of the aggression appeared to be initiated by Mackenzie in response to the other wolves proximity to pups or food.
Lakota is doing well, as noted last week, there was a relapse of the Ehrlicia, but a second round of antibiotics seemed to help. She was off food for a day, but quickly responded to the antibiotics and is now back to her playful self again. Wolf Curator Lori Schmidt needed to lower the retired enclosure gate. As the snow melted, there was a wider and wider gap under the gate. It appears one of the wolves was reaching several feet under the gate, grabbing at anything within reach. Our bets are on Lakota.
Malik is taking many opportunities to test Shadow's dominance. Even though the arctics are neutered, it doesn't completely eliminate the hormonal cylce that goes on during this time of the year. So far, the dominance displays between the arctics have been noisy, but have not resulted in any bite wounds. Malik and Shadow spend many hours posturing and showing each other just how high a tail posture can go.
If you would have asked any of the wolf care personnel, nannies or volunteers if the submissive pup named Maya would one day be dominating Nyssa for the top female role, the answer would probably have been no. The maturing of Maya into a dominant female has been the most interesting pup development as they mature into their first year of life. Maya is very determined and very good at stalking, pouncing, pinnning and overall posturing as a dominant wolf. So far, Shadow seems to favor her endeavors and sometimes encourages her.
I know we've said this before, but the introduction of the pups seems to have affected Shadow the most. He is often observed stimulating play behavior with the pups and is taking on a leadership role more seriously than last year. Even in the old adopt a wolf kits, Malik was termed the dominant of the two arctics. This year, Shadow has clearly taken on this role. In this week's photo, you see a dominance display with Malik and Shadow. Shadow clearly doesn't want Malik on his back.
Sorry for the lapse in logs, I was at 2 professional conferences in the last two weeks; Wolf Care staff took great care of the wolves in my absence. As a distraction, I fed a donated Bison pelt to the Exhibit pack. The wolves were initially very intrigued, and spent several days tugging, chewing, defending and even sleeping on the hide. This kept them quite busy in the Curator's absence and out of trouble. Grizzer continues to be the third wheel in the dominance hierarchy. He doesn't fit into the intensity of the arctics and he doesn't fit into the female role, so he finds himself left out. He ususally creates a distraction or chase scene that gets the interest of another wolf. Grizzer was quite dominant with the bison hide, in this week's photo you see him in high tail posture trying to possess part of the hide.
Sorry for the lapse in logs, I was at 2 professional conferences in the last two weeks; Wolf Care staff took great care of the wolves in my absence. As a distraction, I fed a bison hide to the Exibit pack before I left. The wolves were very intrigued by the hide. Malik made several attempts to possess the hide, but the large size of the hide was a bit difficult to possess. Malik and Shadow continue to display dominance towards each other. Shadow appears to be maintaining the top status, but Malik doesn't give up easily. Malik and Shadow do a lot of posturing, are noisy, but haven't inflicted any bite wounds on each other. They do tend to get the whole pack excited when they start a display.
Sorry for the lapse in logs, I was at 2 professional conferences in the last two weeks; Wolf Care staff took great care of the wolves in my absence. I gave the Exhibit Pack a bison hide for entertainment while I was gone, it seemed to do the trick. Maya gave wolf care staff an interesting surprise, on February 10th, staff noticed Maya began showing estrus bleeding, a sign that she had come into a heat cycle. This was a bit earlier than anticipated, usually wolves don't become sexually active until they're 18 – 24 months of age, but the higher nutrition and lack of a dominant female role can create a situation where an 8 month old pup can come into heat. We knew the pups were in good condition coming into the winter, so we took the precaution of neutering Grizzer in case there was an early heat cycle. Nyssa has not shown any signs of coming into heat, both females will be spayed in May '05.
Nyssa is doing well, she's still spending time in her own straw beds, but she is interacting more with the other wolves. She is still first on the deer carcass and very intent on defending it.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.