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.
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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.
We thought the arctics would have settled the top ranking order in the pack, but they continue to posture and dominante each other without much sign of a resolution. Malik seems to keep pushing the issue and Shadow seems to keep proving his point.
Program Specialist, Jen Westlund writes: " Today at about 2 PM the arctic's got a raven. I didn't see the actual situation of how they got it, but Shadow was on top of the raven guarding it from Malik. They rolled on it, ripped off some feathers and took it up the hill. A group of ravens followed the wolves and displayed a very intense distress call."
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