Denali – The laid back wolf

The following is written by Night at the Museum – Wolf Watch participant Anna Toenjes

Denali is comfortable in his pack role, greeting Aidan when appropriate and keeping Boltz below him when need be. Denali walks shoulder to shoulder with Luna and Boltz, tails wagging and faces are licked. He lets Luna push him around a bit. She can stand over him while he’s eating and steal food from him and he tolerates it. Most of the time he’s laid back and enjoys sprawling on the big rock under the white pine.

Grizzer – Where Art Thou?

With only one wolf in retirement and having three enclosures to roam, we have noticed an increased amount of vegetation throughout the retired enclosures.  There are times that staff need to search for Grizzer.  Sometimes, he’s in the East Side Enclosure under a dense cover of Elderberry shrubs escaping the heat of the day.  One staff person even witnessed him sleeping on his back with his legs up in the air, certainly a picture of relaxation.  One thing Grizzer does well is relax.  Especially with the wolf care staff giving him their full and undivided attention.  When the pups come next year, the Pack Holding area near the wolf yard will be dedicated to pups, leaving Grizzer to roam his back habitat and the East Side Retirement enclosure.  I suspect he will not be pleased with that management decision.

Luna – Running with the Pack

In this week’s Youtube video you will see Luna active and running with the pack.  In most cases, she instigates the chase by doing playbows and obnoxious submission behavior towards Aidan.  Despite her limitations, she can run.  As she approaches her 4th birthday next spring, we are really monitoring her movements and see if she has any degradation of her joints that might make life challenging as she ages.  We certainly know that the addition of pups will mean an increased amount of time running with the pack.  Since wolf care staff will be with the pups 24 hours a day, 7 days of week during the late spring and summer of 2016, we are in a good position to care for Luna if there is a medical procedure that can improve her condition.  But, that is the key phrase, the risk of the medical procedure and recovery must have a greater benefit to her quality of life.  The next few months will have a lot of discussions and observations to make these critical management decisions.

Boltz – A T1 Tail

Over the summer, many visitors have experienced Boltz in a subordinate, fly avoiding behavior.  In this photo, we see that Boltz has another side.  He is incredibly alert and seems to mimic Aidan’s behaviors.  This includes some focused dominance on Luna.  In this photo, Boltz shows a T1 tail that is in stark contrast to his tucked T4 tail when a fly buzzes his head. Everyone has to start somewhere.  When Aidan was a  yearling, he had the same postures, but it wasn’t a fly buzzing his head, it was Maya.

Aidan – Middle Age Woes

Aidan is seven years old and has an active job managing this pack.  On Friday morning, we noticed that he didn’t come out of the den to interact with staff.  This is atypical for Aidan, he likes to greet staff especially the Friday morning team which usually has enough people to ensure that every wolf gets a human.  Upon further investigation, we discovered sensitivity in his right knee.  The vet’s prescribed a 7 day treatment of anti-inflammatory and within 30 minutes of the first dose, was running, jumping and chasing with the pack.  (this is probably how he got the injury in the first place). Even though his attitude is willing, his body reminds him that he is a middle-aged wolf.  Notice how Boltz is close to Aidan as this examination occurred.  We are seeing some very alert behavior to Aidan’s weaknesses.

Denali – Just Chilling

August is known for warm and humid days.  People tend to refer to them as the dog days of summer due to the extreme heat and humidity. Because of these extreme temperatures, most dogs will spend most of their day resting just to stay cool.  Our Exhibit Pack wolves are no different.  We are often asked why is August worse when July can actually have hotter temperatures?   In July, wolves have fully shed their winter undercoat, leaving a comfortable set of guard hairs, but no dense undercoat.  They stay relatively cool even on a hot July day because of their summer pelage.  By mid-August, wolves begin growing their undercoat. The combination of a dense undercoat and the August heat, makes it a challenge to stay cool.  Add the humidity of August that reduces a canid’s ability to evaporate heat when panting, and you have a behavioral need to remain inactive.  So why grow an undercoat in August?  Fall nights start to cool down and those of us who live in a northern climate know that winter is right around the corner.

 

Luna – Wolf Ethology Observations

This week’s wolf logs are based on observations by our Biology 1476: Wolf Ethology participants

Lorie Chestnut – Luna was again the center of enclosure activity as she observed Denali gnawing on a deer leg that he had wrestled from a three-day-old carcass. When the opportunity presented itself minutes later, Luna walked slowly to the deer carcass and lay down in closer proximity to the deer. Soon Denali was drawn away, investigating a small animal in some nearby bushes, and Luna moved in; possessing the leg for the next 10 minutes. Later in the evening, Denali regained possession of the leg.

Wolf Ethology Participant – Luna was in a playful and rambunctious mood when she was up and moving around. She was full of energy, but also relaxed now and then. After some high levels of activity, she started favoring her back leg a little more. Luna spent some time investigating what could have been a small animal in the rocks surrounding the pond, but it turned out to be some camel hair that was previously used for enrichment.

Grizzer – High Wolf Yard Traffic

Grizzer did remarkably well for having so much traffic in the wolf yard and wolf lab during our Wolf Ethology program. While no observations were conducted on Grizzer, to ease his stress of new people in the yard, he remained engaging with staff, and seemed to enjoy his time with wolf care over the weekend. Grizzer has finished shedding out his winter coat, just in time for him to start growing it again. In the coming weeks, we imagine we will begin to see some of that thicker coat coming in again for all of our wolves. We are already beginning to see the smallest of hints of the coming cold, and we know that soon enough we will be in the full swing of autumn.

Denali – Wolf Ethology Observations

This week’s wolf logs are based on observations by our Biology 1476: Wolf Ethology participants

Wolf Ethology Participant – Denali is a calmer wolf who avoids conflict when he can – sometimes he’ll play peacemaker, trying to distract wolves from an intense situation. Sometimes he takes the focus of the mobbing. Aidan and Luna both dominated Denali at different times last night, sitting on his head and ‘squashing’ him at times.

Wolf Ethology Participant – During the webinar Denali tended to be in the forefront of the activity. Aidan appeared to show some signs of stress (possibly due to the high winds). Luna may have picked up on this stress redirected towards Denali. At one point Denali performed a stand-over and squash on Aidan. This activity seemed to trigger a response from Luna, who continued to show dominance over Denali. The rest of the pack joined in, chasing Denali around the enclosure. After 10-15 minutes, the activity subsided and the pack seemed more calm.

Boltz – Wolf Ethology Observations

This week’s wolf logs are based on observations by our Biology 1476: Wolf Ethology participants

Melonie and Suzanne – The weather this week was unusually hot and humid for the Ely area, resulting in more resting behavior from the wolves. However, it was cooler on Wednesday. The wolves became anxious from the wind. Throughout the week, Boltz was ever-watchful of Luna, the wind overhead, and the flies. When not distracted by these elements, Boltz explored the enclosure and interacted with the other wolves comfortably. He spends a considerable amount of time resting on the sand pile, more than any other wolf. When not on the sand, he often moves into the shade where there is a shallow bowl. Even when resting in these areas, Boltz most often has his head raised, ears rotating, or one eye open.