Mackenzie fence fighting with Shadow, a log bench in the enclosure was chewed to pieces. Gretchen Diessner and Lori Schmidt removed the bench and provided Mackenzie with a beaver to chew on."
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Good interactions with all, Mackenzie's eye is still irritated. Noticed fly bites on both Lucas' ears. Will start using fly ointment on a daily basis. Malik was anxious in the holding pen, so he was released almost immediately. Lakota is very relaxed in the pack holding area despite the construction.
At 8 pm, Mackenzie located and killed a ground squirrel from under the rocks in front of the observation windows after nearly 33 minutes of digging, whining and lunging to get under the rock. The pups watched intently and even began digging adjacent to the rock. After Mackenzie ran off with the squirrel and she guarded it from all including the puppies, but at a later observation shift ( 5:40 am on the 16th) the pups play tug a war with the squirrel and both end up eating it.
All wolves asleep by 12:45 with the pups laying about 12 feet apart in the grass of the lower enclosure. The adults slept in the straw beds next to the observation window. There was no further activity until 5:30 am when the pups woke up and approached the adults and then went exploring. At 5:40 am, Malik re-appears with the squirrel that is likely to be Mackenzie's earlier catch. Shadow and Malik tug on the squirrel until they tear it in 2 halves. This brought the interest of the adults and Lakota attempted to take the squirrel away from Shadow. Shadow aggressively growled and snapped at Lakota and managed to keep the squirrel. Malik cached his 1/2 then attempted to take Shadow's 1/2 of the squirrel. Shadow aggressively growled and barred teeth at Malik when guarding, Malik growled back and later let go. Shadow continued to possess the squirrel until all wolves headed for the woods at 6:15 am.
Grizzer has developed a very dense coat this winter. When doing the daily wolf checks, it's hard to get below the fur to really check him out. He continues to stimulate interactions with his fellow pupmates as well as with the arctics. This time of the year is the most aggressive and as Shadow and Malik have their domiance issues, and Maya and Nyssa have their own issues, Grizzer is sometimes left out of the action. He's been observed chasing his own tail during some of these moments.
Meds to all; fed artics two deer legs for "What's for Dinner" program. Shadow and Malik took off with the deer legs up the hill and out of sight for the program. This is why we like to feed a deer torso or beaver rather than a small leg…
Larisa did the feeding tonight; Shadow had to be bribed with meatballs to go into the pack holding area. He showed some anxiety while in holding, no anxiety by Malik today. The holding pen issue seems to be tied to the people outside of the enclosure rather than the pen itself.
SMZ/TMP to Mack and Lakota, regular vitamins to all. Good greetings from all. When Lucas yawned, staff caught a glimpse of his teeth which appeared to have a black spot on one of the molars; during the next visits, staff should try to get a closer look at his teeth (also not an easy task on wolves)
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.
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