Aidan – A Different View

Aidan’s displaying a behavior we term “Roll on Back”.  This behavior may look like a scent roll, but it lacks the characteristic rubbing along the cheek bone that is observed in most scent rolling behavior.  This “Roll on Back” posture seems to have some social components and staff have observed Aidan displaying a submissive pawing motion trying to engage another wolf in social interaction.  With Aidan’s rank as a dominant male, this view of Aidan is certainly different than the posturing high ranking interactions typically encountered.  The pack members seem to understand that this social behavior is independent of rank.

Luna – Possession Rights

Many wolf logs have focused on the admirable traits of Luna, the dominant female of the Center’s Exhibit Pack.  She has persevered through some significant issues and despite her smaller size, has no problem interacting (and sometimes terrifying) the larger male pack mates.  One of Luna’s most common behaviors is her tenacious possession of food resources.  But, it’s important to discuss this behavior in the context of pack life (not just Luna’s attitude).  As a pack animal, wolves feed in social groups and there appears to be a few social rules that make life more compatible.  One of these rules relates to food possession.  In order to get a good meal, lower ranking wolves may pull and tug off pieces of meat from a carcass (tug-of war another candid social behavior) and if they have possession, can guard it from the most dominant pack member.  Of course, they have to be confident enough to possess it, but as long as they stand over it or in Luna’s case, use the possession as a pillow, the other pack members back off.  

Aidan- Thought Patterns?

In the world of Ethology (the study of animal behavior), there are many debates about the influence of individual personalities, especially with a social pack animal like the wolf.  One of the challenges we face is to interpret behavior without becoming anthropomorphic (using human terms to  describe animal behavior).  In this photo, Aidan seems to be expressing a particular thought towards Luna.  There are days where the “pair-bonding” behavior between the dominant pack leaders is not quite evident.

Boltz -Mixed Signals

Boltz is displaying a T-2 tail posture that indicates a more assertive posture, whether it be related to dominance, predatory or investigation behavior.  The mixed signal is in Boltz’s ear posture.  While his tail shows assertive behavior, his ears are pricked and turned sideways, usually an indication of tension.  The other notable postures in this photo is that Aidan is standing tall, his ears are also pricked and turned sideways, with a slight wag to his T-2 Tail.  Our interpretation of this response is that he’s facing off with Boltz and confronting Boltz’s display, but there’s a slight anxiety about the interaction show in the ear posture and tail wag.  It’s been our experience with the testing of previous pack leaders, that these subtle behaviors can be important when predicting the loss of confidence in a dominant wolf.

Denali- Redirected Dominance

Since the new Wolf Care Center construction is in full swing, there seems to be a slight increase in Aidan’s dominance over Denali, and subsequently, Denali’s redirection to Boltz.  While overall, the wolves have done well with the construction, any prolonged change in the surrounding environment can impact pack behavior.  In this week’s photo, Denali is forcing Boltz into a submissive posture with a behavior we identify as “Squash”, while Boltz struggles to break free.  You may be familiar with this behavior from observing Luna, she frequently displays this behavior to acquire possessions from her larger pack mates.  Notice that Aidan isn’t in the photo, this open display of status would not likely be tolerated by Aidan.

Grizzer – Anticipation

The addition of the new Wolf Care Center adjacent to the wolf lab will be a tremendous benefit for the pups as well as for our retirees, but for Grizzer, the anticipation for a return to normalcy is getting to be too much.  When wolf care staff enter the east side vestibule, he looks for opportunities to check out the construction personally by slipping through a gate.  Of course, we are not ready for his return, but hope to have him back in the action by the end of March.  One good thing about his impatient behavior is that he is reminding wolf care staff  about the importance of gate protocol.  That reminder is a necessity when socializing young pups. 

Aidan – Maintaining the Dominant Leader Role

This has been a challenging winter season for the Exhibit Pack.  We have had years of concern for Aidan’s physical issues with his diagnosis of an auto-immune disorder, then we met another challenge with his digestive system this fall.  Both of these medical conditions seem to be under control with our treatment choices, but we know that Aidan is showing his age and there’s a 4-year old wolf watching his every move.  No doubt, we were concerned when we started a construction project in February, which is the height of the winter dominance, but we couldn’t wait on the Wolf Care Center expansion, it’s potential to improve the lives of our ambassadors is too important.  So, we watched, fed extra food resources as distractions and made sure that Aidan had staff attention first.  All of these efforts were necessary to maintain his confidence.  Our efforts seem to have worked, as this photo demonstrates Aidan’s dominant status and Denali shows his active submission.   Our goal was to get this pack through the winter season with no change in leadership.  Aidan is a great dominant male and an excellent leader for pups.  We know there will come a time when he loses confidence, but it doesn’t appear that will happen in this winter season.

Boltz – Alert and Relaxed

In previous logs, we have referenced the importance of body postures to indicate a wolf’s attitude.  We are particularly interested when these body postures represent an alert and focused lower ranking wolf.  Boltz will be turning 4 years of age in March and so far, he has been somewhat reserved when posturing for status.  This doesn’t mean that he isn’t always watching for opportunities and can take advantage of another vulnerable wolf, but at this point, his timid personality trait prevails.  Of course as a science driven organization, we are always interested in the nature versus nurture debate.  We know that wolves respond differently to changes in their environment.  When the construction of the new Wolf Care Center started, the dominant wolves seemed to be more anxious about the work than the lower ranking wolves.  In this photo, Boltz is alert to the activity displaying ears pricked forward, but the tail is in a T-3 or relaxed position.  Maybe if you’re at the bottom of the pack order, there isn’t much concern about external distractions, but when your at the to top, it’s just one more thing to test your position. 

Denali – A Chin Rest

Denali is demonstrating a chin rest on Boltz, but his ears pricked to the side don’t demonstrate a lot of confidence in his actions.  If you look at Boltz’s ears, he doesn’t display a lot of confidence in the behavioral interaction either.  This is the dynamics between a subordinate male (Boltz) and a passive second ranking male (Denali).  Denali never really displays behaviors to increase his rank.  He seems to be comfortable being subordinate to his dominant pack mate, Aidan.  But, when Boltz started showing an interest in climbing rank, Denali appeared to reluctantly show some status.  Fortunately for Denali, Boltz has a timid behavior seems to go with the flow.  Will two more male pups change this dynamic?  Not likely until they reach maturity around 18 – 24 months of age, by then, Denali and Aidan will be getting ready for retirement. 

Grizzer – Ears Pricked and Turned Sideways

In the the Center’s Ethogram (behavioral dictionary), we code body postures to help interpret behaviors. One of the codes is EPTS, which means, Ears Pricked and Turned Sideways.  When the Wolf Care Center construction began, Grizzer showed a lot of anxiety and we decided to help him through the anxious times with a mild sedative, daily food distractions and a good layer of cover hay to find a comfortable place to watch the action.  This combination seems to have worked and while he shows anxiety by pricking his ears sideways, he shows interest in that the ears are still pricked in an alert fashion.  Wolf Care Staff need to be very cognitive of all the subtle details that might express anxiety, especially when socializing pups.