Staff fed Lakota 4 lbs of meat with several cups of warm meat slurry. Lakota is still using the upper den hole as her primary area of concentration, but she if frequently seen moving throughout the upper enclosure.
Shadow is doing well. He's still extremely tolerant of the puppies actions, although he does have his limits and disciplines them. In this week's photo, Grizzer is jumping on Shadow's back. Shadow put up with it for a while, but as Nyssa's expression indicates, he's about to put an end to Grizzer's play bout.
It's been a good week for the Exhibit pack. Temperatures have moderated (although the staff probably appreciates this more) with daytime highs in the teens and even lower 20's. In previous logs, you may have read that Grizzer had been demonstrating some grabbing behavior towards some of the staff. Some theorized that he was not really fitting into the female dominance role, he didn't fit in the arctic's dominance role, so he decided to try the staff role. With a little conditioning, both positive and negative, he seems to have minimized this behavior towards staff. Grizzer continues to be very social with the other wolves and seems to enjoy attention whenever he can get it.
Lakota is doing well. There is a bit of a concern that she may have had a relapse with the ehrlichia infection. Staff noticed her a bit listless on Friday and not very interested in the deer carcass. This is very uncharacteristic for Lakota. A call to the vet suggested another course of Doxycycline antibiotics. Saturday morning's wolf check found her up, active and digging up a cache. Staff will closely monitor her condition.
There was some concern a few weeks ago that MacKenzie was seeming more stressed than ususal. We attempt to keep the Retired enclosure free from group traffic to give them the rest they need as they age. A crew laying out a new powerline was working back behind the enclosures and seemed to cause MacKenzie a bit of anxiety. Staff watched her pace a bit more than usual. This is a concern for older wolves that they may begin to have adaptability issues as their senses deteriorate. Fortunately, MacKenzie returned to her usual dominant female self after the crew left. On Friday's, MacKenzie always gets her own food delivered from the curator before the other wolves are fed. It's our way of showing respect for her status, she's come to expect it and seems to enjoy it.
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. Lucas continues to do well this winter. He has less stiffness than previous winters, despite the recent bout of cold weather. He enjoys wolf checks and gets a thorough physical exam during each check.
Even though Shadow is the wolf in charge of the exhibit pack, he is not immune to the allure of fresh snow. He has been observed multiple times joining in on games of chase with the pups, his tail high over his back. Such games usually end up with Shadow reasserting his dominance over the pups or Malik. As winter comes into full swing and testosterone levels increase, wolf care staff is prepared to see a lot more dominance interactions between Shadow and the rest of the pack.
Lakota's back to her usual self. It appears that the latest round of antibiotics took care of the bacterial infection. A big thank you to all who donated for her medical care. It's great to know the retired wolves are remembered. A big thanks to Susan Sweeny's Class that collected $85. Lakota loved the card… we read it to her since she would rather eat the card than read it. Other donors included: Robert Spix; Barb and Marc Farley; Paul and Chris Batiste; Phyllis Dale; Laurie Reed (mom) Reed Sattizahn (5 year old son who contributed $32 of his allowance for Lakota); Jane Hallauer; Rachel Santos; Sandra Lockwood; Gay Favor; Debra Shephard
I hope you all had a great holiday season. The wolves weathered the holiday well considering the December 26th – 9 am wolf check was -34 degrees below zero. On New Year's day, nearly 10 inches of snow fell creating a great diversion for the wolves (the pups love fresh snow) and many hours of work for the curator. Enjoy the winter photos…
There are no significant behavioral issues to report this week. All wolves seem to be enjoying the fresh snow which seems to fall daily. The only issue is the depth of snow and the height of fences (especially the retired enclosure). The wolf care staff are continually shoveling the winter waterers, paths and gates to ensure that day to day operations can continue. This week's log photos are reminder's of the days, months and years of care that's been delivered at the IWC. When winter arrives (as it has this year), the work can sometime seem overwhelming. Staff often talk about the good old pup days (we forget how much work pups are when the snow flies) Enjoy the pup pictures…
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.