It's the start of the 25th anniversary celebration weekend, and the Youtube Posting will be delayed until Monday to show some of the weekend events. Grizzer did some fairly intense testing of Shadow on Thursday morning. It was preceded by some time spent in holding, when the wolves can get extremely excited. The upper windows of the Exhibit were washed, which requires all wolves to be locked off, and staff were prepping the wolf yard for the first Behind the Scenes programs of the summer. These changes to the wolves environment were enough to cause some tension, and redirection. It is very important to understand that wolf management requires a consistent and calm style, and when that changes, any underlying tension comes to the surface.
Grizzer has been receiving some increased dominance from Shadow, and some testing from Denali. The concern that we have is that Shadow may be overcompensating his dominance due to his joint stiffness, and Grizzer may redirect to Shadow if Denali continues to take advantage of him. Normally, Grizzer is very non-confrontational. His observations are more likely to show a calm wolf with a few bouts of chasing and wrestling, then more calmness. Managing wolf exhibits requires constant observations of all wolves, their normal behavioral patterns and any deviation from normal.
Staff have observed the pack in the last week, and there seems to be a pattern of Maya lying closer to Aidan and Grizzer associating with Denali. Aidan still has some anxiety, and receives some dominance when there is excitement in the enclosure such as enclosure enrichments or delivery of fly ointment. Overall, Aidan does seem to tolerate the situation, even though he is vocal about the attention. After he receives dominance, he follows Maya and begins soliciting attention almost immediately. He has displayed more fore-leg stabs than any other wolf on exhibit.
Denali is one of the easiest wolves to manage when it comes to fly ointment. He will stand still and allow staff to apply ointment to ears, feet, legs, toes etc. He is the model wolf when it comes to physical care, but behaviorally?, that's another challenge. Denali seems to have no consistency to testing, whether it be staff or lately Maya. When Maya is engaged in dominance over Aidan, Denali has been actively grab biting Maya, creating more tension for Maya. When Maya does address the issue directly with Denali, he either runs, or does a face off with high tail. These are two significantly different responses. With staff, Denali will either test by grabbing anything near him, or he will rest his head on staff's shoulders and just sit there. This is why wolf care staff are trained to expect the unexpected, and why there is no such thing as an expert in captive wolf management because every day is different and every wolf personality as well as pack dynamics can influence a wolf's behavior.
Grizzer is improving in social interactions. On the first few days after Shadow's retirement, he was more aloof, and seemed a bit anxious. In the last week, this has improved, and he is again socially interacting with Denali in wrestling behavior. Wolf care staff did two things that helped stimulate Grizzer. The first was the application of fly spray on the ground to stimulate scent-rolling. This was a management need to help apply fly repellent to the wolves coats, but it served to stimulate Grizzer who is obsessed with scent-rolling. The second activity to help Grizzer related to a dog pup. As many of you will recall, Grizzer is extremely social to pups. We had one of our Vermilion students bring their 3 month old dog pup to the outer gates and in the observation area. Grizzer was extremely excited, and was face to face through the windows with the pup (we would never risk a dog pups life by bringing them into a pack of wolves, it is even risky to introduce wolf pups). This worked, the following day, Grizzer was far more socially interacting, if we're lucky, the dog pup may have stimulated an increase in prolactin hormone, a naturally occuring nuturing hormone that cycles in summer.
The most noteable behavior since Shadow's retirement is the fact that Maya, while still showing some dominance, has much less tension. She clearly will have an influence on who leads this pack, but for right now, she is involved in all interactions. The wolf care staff will be coordinating a few more observation periods in the upcoming months to watch these dynamics unfold. Most observations need to occur after hours, during the cooler parts of the day, so watch the web for short – one night programs called "Wolf Watches", allowing people to participate in these observations.
Malik has certainly increased his social interactions since Shadow's retirement. This includes interacting on the den site with Shadow, but also more tolerance for staff that used to intimidate him. One benefit of retirement is the fact that a wolf can sleep all day long with no programming obligations, and Malik and Shadow are both showing a tendency to get long rest periods during the day. The only disturbance they have is when the temperatures increase and staff turn on a misting hose over their enclosure. Both wolves seem to enjoy standing in the mist and cooling off. But, don't assume 10-year old wolves are beyond trouble. Between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, one of the retired wolves (we assume Malik, only because he has a history of hose biting), managed to get the sprinkler hose, and shredded the hose into several parts. A new hose was installed on Monday, with some restraints to keep it out of reach.
We are 2 weeks post retirement and Grizzer is starting to become more interactive. Of all the wolves in the Exhibit Pack, Grizzer showed the most behavioral issues with Shadow's retirement. Since the 2008 pup introduction, we have observed Grizzer to be tolerant of pups, not forcing any conflict and letting the pups climb all over him. As those pups matured, he continued to avoid conflict, and maintained a social relationship. With the exception of the dominance he showed towards Malik, he's always been quick to give in, especially to Shadow's dominance. In the absence of Shadow's leadership, Grizzer appears to be responding with avoidance behavior when Maya, Denali or Aidan are in a dominant interaction. We interpret this as a lack of behavior towards assuming a leadership role, resulting in either Aidan or Denali becoming the next dominant male. The Center is re instituting a program called Wolf Watch. This program occurs the first Thursday of every month, and involves training program participants in data collection, and having the observers camp out in the auditorium for a night of observation. We hope to offer this program the first Thursday of every month, and be able to interpret the pack dynamics without the influence of wolf care staff interactions with the wolves.
In the last few month's prior to retirement, Shadow was very tense when any of the other wolves approached. This could have been related to his aging condition and overcompensation for dominance as he began to physically age. The pack is very calm since Shadow's retirement, and Aidan has benefited greatly. With Maya under less tension, Aidan has been less of a target, and was observed swimming during a recent enclosure enrichment, something that he hasn't done in years, likely due to the lack of a quick escape in the water. Aidan has been showing some dominance, and the following notes were observed by Wolf Ethology Students: Kara Lindberg, Kathy Shaw, Emily Perry, Jim Shero <br> Aidan has been very attentive to interactions between all of the pack members. Shadow initiated multiple howls, to which the pack responded. Aidan joined in these responses and stood near the other members of the pack , both of which are recent behaviors for him. Aidan has been initiating play bouts with Denali and has begun to assert dominance over Denali. One interesting interaction included Aidan pinning Denali while about ten feet away Maya pinned Grizzer. Aidan and Maya held the pins for several seconds. Also, two times this week Aidan and Maya were seen parallel gaiting together.
Denali is still very social, interacting with Grizzer and Maya in chase behavior, and also Aidan when Aidan is showing confidence. Denali allows Aidan to show rank over him, but is using direct eye contact towards Aidan. So far, the pack is showing no clear leader, nor any indication that dominance other than Maya is defined. As a reminder, the summer season is the calmest season of the year, and rank activity may not be apparent until fall. The following observations were made by Ethology Students: Sarah Bruskotter, Jocelyn Faydenko, Steve Dibble. <br> Denali and Aidan have spent a fair amount of time playing this week. The increased amount of play behavior suggests relaxed wolves. Denali has been experiencing dominance from Aidan this week, something he hasn’t experienced from Aidan in quite some time.
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