Malik is beginning to explore on his own, without the support of his brother. Malik seems to be more outgoing at this time.
MacKenzie seems to really come alive during the winter months. Watching her during Saturday's snowfall, one would guess they were observing a 2 year old instead of a wolf nearing 12. MacKenzie enjoys doing the "snowplow" in new snow. She puts her head down, slides her head along the ground pushing the snow like a V-plow, then falls to the ground on her back. In this weeks photo, there's remnants of snow on her nose after she plowed a few inches of snow.
Maya has definitely been gaining status. The most noteable issue is that Shadow seems to favor her, which is probably helping Maya. In size, Maya is similar in height to Grizzer making her harder to distinguish, but if there's a gray pup intently staring at Nyssa, stalking her, you can almost guarantee it's Maya. Grizzer just comes over and lands on her, while Maya is much more stealth.
If you read the other logs, you will notice that Nyssa's getting a bit of dominance focus from the pack. Don't feel too sorry for her, she gives plently back, especially to Grizzer. Nyssa seems to be very independent and doesn't seem to seek much social interaction from the adult wolves. Maya is often observed in a submissive posture paying homage to Shadow, Nyssa is usually in their face snarling. This may have been influenced Shadow's behavior in favoring Maya. The female dominance role can go back and forth and may not be settled until they reach maturity between 19 and 24 months.
Maya is the most interesting pup for wolf care staff to work with. Our initial reading of her submissive behavior led us to believe that she would assume the lower ranking role without question. Were we wrong; Maya is very adept at making her presence and status known to Nyssa. The most interesting observation to note during these dominance displays is the tail postures. Maya not only holds her tail high, she also has a slight wag of excited stimulus and actually looks like the dominance behavior toward Nyssa has a social greeting component. The other wolves see that and are encouraged to display social behavior towards Maya. Nyssa usually has a stiff body posture, looking intimidated. Shadow continues to favor Maya in these situations. Usually, when the females are dominanting each other, the males tend to keep their distance. Except Grizzer, who has been observed trying to roll over on the females, getting their attention for a few moments.
Information Specialist, Amy Jacobs had her first visit in the wolf pen today, meeting the retired wolves. The wolves were very excited to greet her, Lakota had two or three episodes, excitably chasing around the pen, followed by shortness of breath. Staff are attempting to keep her from getting too excited, but this is Lakota's personality.
There are several observations this week showing dominance between Malik and Shadow. On the 4th, Jen Westlund writes "…Malik and Shadow showed aggressive dominance towards each other with Grizzer riding up on whoever was being dominated…" on the 6th, Larisa Skujins wrote "…All pups riding up on Malik and mobbing him during the feeding… later in the log it notes that Malik and Shadow dominated Grizzer… and Malik later protected a deer head successfully from the pups."
Nyssa continues to be the dominant force on a deer carcass. During Saturday's feeding on the 6th, Nyssa was quite vocal in her defense (probably to make up for her smaller size)… She showed aggressive dominance towards both Shadow and Malik. At this time, Malik and Shadow still back off, but as winter approaches, they will likely take a more defensive roll with the carcass and spend more time putting the pups in their place.
As the pups were being raised, personalities were developing. Most people would agree that Nyssa showed most dominance with the other pups especially around food. What is somewhat surprising is her skittish behavior towards activities in the main Exhibit. While the other wolves take things like wheelbarrows, student workers, rakes, shovels and rock hauling in stride, Nyssa has become exteremely nervous about people who are not part of the regular staff and activities that involve new objects. Her timid behavior often results in her avoiding the holding pen where the other wolves willingly enter, and leads her to retreat to the top of the enclosure to avoid the things that startle her. Even though these wolves are socialized, this skittish behavior is instinctual, and probably what allows wolves in the wild to survive a human dominated environment.
Shadow is doing extremely well after his ivermectin treatment during the exam and his follow up treatment for mites. His ears are perked up again and he has been very approachable by staff. During the worst of his condition, he began to avoid all staff and stayed to the back of the enclosure, even avoiding interaction with the other wolves and responding in an aggressive manner when the pups approached. It's great to see him back with the pack, feeling comfortable with the staff and looking less irritated.
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.