Written by: Wolf Photography Weekend photographer Gwen Fischer
Poor Grayson – Denali took a great interest in removing the burrs off of Grayson during an epic grooming session. Axel took advantage of grooming time by sneaking up and pouncing on Grayson’s backside. But Denali was determined and despite a lot of wiggling and squirming, paws and tail in the face, and occasional growling he finished the burr removal job.
Written by: Wolf Photography Weekend photographer Maureen Pavlochik
When Boltz first looked me in the eye, I felt his intensity in my soul. I was surprised at how a wolf with such intensity could be so gentle with the pups.
Written by: Wolf Photography Weekend photographer Anung Vilay
He is starting to gain confidence with playing with Axel and Boltz. Except with Denali around, he still gets picked on.
Written by: Wolf Photography Weekend photographer Charles Kuhlman
Luna was demonstrating the behavior of “living large” while away from the pack. She enjoys being papered with the body work she is receiving – quick to roll on her back so wolf care staff could massage her joints and belly.
We did our first trial of Grizzer sharing a fence line with Luna. Grizzer did fabulous, was calm and collected, not showing any posturing towards Luna. It wasn’t quite the same response on the other side of the fence. Luna seemed to have her old pattern of threat display, likely a preemptive move to control interactions. Grizzer was excited to be back in the far habitat that has been off limits since Luna’s move out of the pack. It didn’t take long for Grizzer to hone in on Denali through the fence and display a T-2- straight back tail with some direct eye contact for Denali. Needless to stay, all wolves were stimulated and after Grizzer’s return back to his enclosure, it motivated him to dig up his cache’s and feed on a beaver. Nothing like the perceived idea of competition to make a wolf consume some food.
Grizzer lives in the East Side Retirement area that has less moisture due to topography and a lack of pond overflow that is characteristic of the Exhibit Pack. These dryer soils seem to show the autumn colors in full force in retirement, while the vegetation around the Exhibit Pack pond remains green. While photographers appreciate fall colors and eventual leaves falling, the change brings more open enclosures and to some extent, more vulnerability for wolves, especially the older wolves. If Grizzer gets overwhelmed by the activities around the wolf yard, in summer, he could always retreat to the back of the retirement area and be literally out of sight. Now, the breaks in the canopy are creating a bit more alertness and we need to be more sensitive to the activities within the wolf yard. This is one of the reasons that we wind down the “Behind the Scenes” tours until next spring. Grizzer will have some challenges during the upcoming Working for Wolves program in October. We are carefully determining the extent of the work projects that we need to do prior to the weekend by wolf care staff versus work that can be done during the Working for Wolves weekend. We are excited about the weekend and know that it will result in a tremendous improvement in the lives of Grizzer, Luna and the Exhibit Pack.
Boltz has been the surprise of this pup introduction, showing more interest and more protection of the pups than any of the other males. This could be caused by Boltz’s lack of pup interactions during his critical bonding period, when Luna was on surgery recovery and wasn’t allow to rough-house in at typical pup-mate fashion or this could just be Boltz’s personality, finally able to express himself in the absence of Luna from the pack. Regardless of the cause, the result is a series of expressive postures usually involving the pups. There is no “cookie cutter” recipe for working with wolves. Every individual and every social relationship will dictate the overall social interaction of the group and these situations can change when the dynamics of the pack changes. We are in the middle of a new pack formation with the introduction of the 2016 pups and the the new found social interactions of an otherwise, shy lower ranking male.
Grayson has really gained confidence in the past few weeks. As I wrote in Luna’s logs, we hired a CTS-D (CranioSacral Therapy Practitioner) to assist with improving Luna’s quality of life, but we are also seeing some good response on Grayson. His first month in the enclosure had a lot of anxious moments, creating a lot of tension both behaviorally and physically. Since we started using the newly taught body work techniques, Grayson appears much more relaxed and with that relaxation, a new found confidence. We use a straw bale in the medical pen as a make-shift treatment table and Grayson climbs on the bale waiting for staff to go to work. The treatments are a morning and evening ritual providing good staff interaction to maintain a strong social bond and a good assessment of his physical condition. If the byproduct of that work is a more confident pup, we can’t go wrong.
Sorry, I just realized I didn’t post Grayson’s weights in the first set of logs.
We track the pups on a weekly basis with a weight on Fridays. Since September 1st, Grayson has gained 14.6 pounds, with the highest gain of ~ 4 pounds in the last week.
| Name | Date | Pounds | Weight gain since last measurement |
| Grayson | 9/2/2016 | 41.2 | 3.2 |
| Grayson | 9/9/2016 | 43.4 | 2.2 |
| Grayson | 9/16/2016 | 46 | 2.6 |
| Grayson | 9/23/2016 | 48.4 | 2.4 |
| Grayson | 9/30/2016 | 52.6 | 4.2 |
Grayson is behind Axel and this may be his genetics or it may be his increased energy and response to activity. We will continue to do body work and help Grayson relax and hope that the calorie output from activity slows a bit so he can catch up to Axel.
We recently completed a variety of medical tests including bloodwork and X-rays on Luna. The good news is her blood panel is within normal range, her vitamin D levels are as high as they have been since we acquired her as a one month old pup and while we see some deterioration from a hip socket that never properly formed as a pup, there is no other degenerative evidence of the spine. This leaves us to assess the comfort of her current condition. To accomplish this, we hired a CST-D to teach the wolf care staff some bodywork techniques that may provide some relief to not only Luna, but all of the wolves in our care. Luna has been very receptive to this soft – touch technique directed at her right leg, hip and tail region. The daily interactions have resulted on some quality interactions between Luna and staff. The next level of assessments will be behavioral, looking at her social interactions with other wolves. We want to do what’s best for Luna, and we know that wolf behavior intensifies as the winter season approaches. These next few months will be very significant.
In the wild, Raised Leg Urination or RLU’s, are typically associated with the dominant pair, both male and female establishing a territory and communicating their active role in pair bonding and defending that territory. In captivity, especially with a spayed and neutered exhibit, scent marking may still be associated with dominance and confidence, but it may not be as rigid. In our Exhibit Pack, we see scent marking vary with the individual, the time of year and the interactions among the individuals. Most of the time, Denali displays a standing or squat urination and Aidan almost exclusively displays an RLU. In the past month with the absence of Luna and Aidan’s preoccupation with the pups, Denali’s been a bit free to express himself. But as fall approaches, freedom of expression seems to be waning. In today’s image, Denali’s RLU is subdued and not quite so obvious.
