Luna – A hint of a maturing dominant female

We were hoping to see some more pairbonding behavior from Luna towards Aidan this winter, she still has many of her juvenile traits, mixed in with her more dominant personality. We have seen some pairbonding behavior, mixed between Aidan and Denali. Some days we see her rolling around with Denali (Though it often appears to be motivated by a piece of food he’s possessing), other days we see Luna resting very closely with Aidan. During the breeding season, it’s been noted that the breeding pair often rest closer to one another, and generally interact with each other more often than other pack members. We’ve seen only a little bit of the pairbonding behavior this year, and it will be interesting to see how Aidan and Luna may fall into their roles as we bring in new pups for 2016.

Grizzer – New items in the enclosure

Wolves are very quick to pick up on new things in their environment. We’re reminded of this whenever someone comes into the enclosure with new boots, pants, gloves, or even a shampoo. New items often become the focus of the wolves very quickly. In this week’s youtube, you can see Grizzer’s fascination with some new pants one of the staff was wearing. It’s important for wolf care staff to understand safety protocols regarding captive wolves’ interest in the items we bring into the enclosure. This could be gloves, hats, cameras, etc. There have been many times the wolves have gotten an item or two from wolf care staff, which is why we often have zippers on our pockets!

Denali – The focus of the pack

One could see Denali at the bottom of the male rank order this week, as he’s been much of the focus for the pack’s dominance displays. Most of these interactions are social, or ritualized dominance, we see that in Denali’s tail posture, often still wagging, or untucked during the activity. Nevertheless, Denali seems more content resting in the upper portion of the enclosure with his meals over the past few days.

Boltz – The subsiding of winter

While much of the winter was spent testing the dominant male, Boltz’s testing seems to have calmed down a bit. We still see some following behaviors, direct eye stares, and high tails now and then, but the interactions do not appear to be as intense as in previous months. Younger animals will often test their older, aging counterparts for quite a while. In some instances this will continue until the older animal’s retirement here at the International Wolf Center, but in other cases, testing may be put to a halt by the dominant animal. It’s hard to say how Boltz’s story will go, only time will tell.

Aidan – The excitability of spring

Aidan has been seen in a great deal of excitable interactions with the other pack members. Some of this is general play behavior, and a lot of it is ritualized dominance. The focus of the domination has primarily been on Denali this week, but Aidan and Boltz have also had their dominance bouts a few times. As spring approaches, hormones will slowly die down, and a calmer energy will often come over pack as the warmer weather warrants it. Perhaps the change in the air, or the suddenly melting snow has done it, but for now, the wolves remain quite excitable and active.

Boltz- Stalking

Boltz is showing an increase in predatory drive with ravens, but in this image, he was photographed stalking Luna.  I certainly see Boltz showing some tendency towards more dominance, but I also see him in social behavior with Denali at the bottom of the order.   We have another year of status before the pups arrive, our goal is to keep Aidan strong, let Boltz be comfortable with his position.  Wolves tend to be Neophobic or fearful of new things, but Boltz tends to take his intimidation to a higher level.  He’s calm when Aidan’s calm, and when there’s some intimidation, he tends to redirect.

 

Aidan – Resting with EPTS

What is EPTS – in our Ethogram code, EPTS means Ears Pricked and Turned Sideways.  This ear posture is usually an indication of tension in the wolf.  Most people assume the dominant wolf is always in control and has a carefree life, but there is a lot of research that indicates that high-ranking individuals tend to have higher metabolic rates and higher levels of cortisol.  In our captive facility, Aidan is the only individual wolf with an auto-immune disorder.  We have witnessed the impact of aging on our other pack leaders, and some days, Aidan looks much older than Denali.

 

 

 

   

Grizzer – Howling in the Night

Since the loss of Shadow, we have been experiencing less howling within the social groups.  Recently, Grizzer has been observed by webcam viewers howling in the late evening. Someone had recently asked about Grizzer’s right eye.  It is slightly misshapen and doesn’t have the same blink reflex as his left eye.  This was the result of some dominance issues between Grizzer and Denali starting in the winter of 2010, and eventually lead to Grizzer’s retirement in March, 2011.  His antagonistic behavior towards Denali resulted in some threat displays from Denali, and with Denali’s added height, lead to some head scrapes on Grizzer.   Grizzer received several sutures to the top of his head and by the last incident, it appears that there may have been some nerve damage.  He shows no pain response, but seems to have limited blink response in his right eye.  His 3rd eye lid, called the Nictitating membrane, does blink, but not at the same rate as his upper eyelid.  This is hard to see during the daylight, but can be viewed by our night vision camera.  When his 3rd eyelid blinks, the tapetum lucidum (a layer of tissue in the eye that reflects light) shows his blink response, slower than his left, but still present.

 

Grizzer – Contact Outside of the Enclosure

Grizzer has been having a bit of howling stimulus from outside of the enclosure lately.  It is the wild wolf breeding season, and certainly wild wolves may be more actively defending territory.  We haven’t been fortunate enough to catch it on camera, but the surveillance camera and our closest neighbors have been providing time and dates of these communications.  Otherwise, Grizzer has been extremely fortunate that we have an excess amount of deer in the freezer and he has shared two deer torso’s this month with the ravens.  You can definitely see why wolves have evolved to eat large portions of food at one time, the ravens can make short work out of any deer carcass left in their view.

I wanted to comment on a question asked in one of my recent YouTubes about Grizzer’s blink response in his right eye.  Grizzer had some altercations with Denali in the winter of 2010/2011 that resulted in some wounds to the top of his head.  Two things resulted from these altercations.  Grizzer was retired and he has some nerve damage that controls his ability to blink his upper eye lid.  If you look at Grizzer’s infrared video (our night time webcam view), you will see his blink reflex does occur, but it’s from his 3rd eyelid blinking from below.

Denali- Back to Food Possession

Wolf Logs written by Wolf Watch participants Steve Houglum and Marcia Mummau. 

Denali is feeling better!  During the Friday evening Wolf Watch program, two small deer legs were given to the pack.  Denali possessed both legs and displayed a number of lip curls when Luna attempted to take possession of one of the legs.  If you read Luna’s  log, you will see that her subtle posturing won her one of the legs, but Denali managed to keep the other.  We are just happy to report that he is feeling so much better and is willing to possess and defend food.

The Wolf Watch program is generally offered on the first Friday of each month, allowing participants to join wolf care staff as they observe the pack interactions and record any behavioral data that helps determine pack dynamics.