Today Maya is 73 days old. She continues to be very calm and submissive towards people, and has no problems during programs. She has been climbing up on logs in the pen and attacking her packmates as they walk by.
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The following text was written by Workin' for Wolves participants: Liana Volpa and Linda Duffy. A camera crew came Sunday morning and Shadow got unnerved by strangers. Grizzer tried taking advantage of the situation by stalking Shadow and trying to unnerve him further. Shadow wouldn’t allow Grizzer to take advantage and did a chin rest and later stood over him. Grizzer accepted Shadow’s dominance by putting his head further under Shadow and averting his gaze.
The following text was written by Workin’ for Wolves participants: Andi Nelson and Lori Rhodes. During the Workin’ for Wolves weekend, participants helped with spring clean up of the retirement enclosure. In Mac’s photo this week she’s demonstrating a dominant stand over Lakota; possibly a direct result of the anxiety over the noise and activity generated from wolf lab cleaning. The retired wolves, at fifteen years of age, are adept at demonstrating hierarchy displays although they may appear more subtle than their younger counterparts.
The following text was written by Workin’ for Wolves participants: Joanne Wessels and Debbie Puett. Malik continued with his attempt to maintain some dominance over Grizzer he gained since the winter’s snowfall. He followed Grizzer closely making him aware of his presence. Malik initiated lots of chases and playing with Maya and Grizzer.
Malik continues to take advantage of Grizzer's calming nature, and Grizzer is taking it well, submitting to Malik and ignoring some of Malik's postures. This has helped Malik relax a bit, and he is spending more time in social interaction without the anxiety he displayed this winter. He continues to show associative behavior with Shadow as his littermate and is often found lying in close proximity to Shadow.
Maya continues to have issues going into holding, when staff pressure washed the pond on Friday, she stayed out while the staff worked. She remained calm with the activity, but we need to start working on positive association with the pack holding area, so she will freely go into the area when the pup introduction occurs. Of course, the motivation of seeing the pups will likely draw her in, but we don't want her displaying anxiety with holding that may influence the pups response. After the pond cleaning, Maya and Grizzer scent rolled on the area where the pressure washer was located, and on the debris that was removed from the pond.
Shadow is doing extremely well, in a very social mood and interacting with each pack member in a special way. He frequently does a parallel gate with Maya, walking shoulder to shoulder. He rolls over for Grizzer without showing any loss of status, more of a social, let's interact behavior. He and Malik often rest together, and Shadow is right in the mix when Malik starts to test Grizzer. But the most noteable behavior from Shadow is the alert and watchful behavior of a dominant male. He is often on the greeting rock or on the hillside, watching, sniffing and responding to anything that approaches his pack.
Grizzer and Maya are four years old today, May 5. It is hard to believe four years have gone by since we selected these pups to join the Exhibit Pack. Grizzer continues to maintain the testing status of adult, while occasionally reverting back to a pup mentality when interacting with his littermate, Maya. All of the wolves received a complete medical exam on Friday, including detailed blood work, ear treatment for flies, and a tick treatment. The results of the blood work won’t be back until later in the week, but it is critical before the pups arrive that we know all individuals are healthy. Wolf care staff attempted to get weights on Grizzer, but he bottomed out the scale at 110 lbs. So, this likely means that he is a healthy amount over 110 lbs. He generally loses this extra weight during the summer, but the only opportunity we have to weigh him is when he is sedated for an exam. We won’t need to do another routine medical exam for three more years. The video for the Exhibit pack was taken a day after the medical exam, prior to the Saturday night feeding. As you can see, everyone recovered well and was excited about the deer feeding.
Lakota and MacKenzie had two treats in honor of their 15th birthday. On Monday, April 28th, the actual day that we celebrate as their birthday, they shared a bag of dried cranberries. Wolves have a bit of a sweet tooth, even in the wild; you can occasional blueberries in wolf scat. We don’t make a habit of this because we did have an issue a few years ago when Lakota over indulged on raspberries that she picked on the edge of the enclosure, but it is a good treat. The second treat came in the form of a roasting hen that they received as their mid-week meal. What a difference a few days can make, the photo of Lakota digging in the snow for berries was a Monday photo, the photo of MacKenzie carrying the chicken in a nearly snow free enclosure was a Wednesday photo.
Medical exams are hardest on the pack leaders, as they tend to resist letting go of their control and struggle to fight the drug, and express anxiety as the rest of the pack is separated. The tail wags in Shadow’s video clip show the strong social relationship these wolves share. They are a compatible pack and get along well together. You will also notice in Shadow’s video that he is scratching his ears. This is one of the reasons Shadow and Malik have had more extensive veterinary exams in the last few years. In 2005, it was discovered that Shadow had ear mites, after several treatments, those were cleared up and no evidence of mites were detected in 2006, but he still showed irritation in his ears. So, in 2007, he had an exam with a full ear cleaning, again, no problems were identified. In this exam, it appears that there are small areas of irritation that could be related to allergies. Staff will be working with the Veterinarian to attempt to give Shadow some relief.
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