After all the commotion in the past few weeks, some rest has done Grizzer well, and he appears to be back to his old self. Most of his time has been spent resting under his favorite pine and on top of the east side den. A special thank you to Steven Houglum for the donation of shore hay, as Grizzer has certainly benefitted from a warm bed on his den!
Luna is perhaps the quickest wolf to play-bow. In fact, wolf care staff witnessed Luna play-bowing to a Raven near the carcass earlier this week. All of this social solicitation often ends with a chase of Luna around the enclosure. We keep a close eye on her leg, but as for right now, it’s not slowing her down one bit.
Denali had a relatively calm week, participating in a few chases, guarding a few meals, getting said meals stolen from him by Luna. We’ve noticed Boltz and Denali interaction very well on a regular basis, typically with Boltz fully submitting to Denali. It is interesting that Boltz so willingly submits to Denali, the second ranking male, but is less likely to submit to the dominant male Aidan.
Boltz wasn’t in much of a mood to interact this week, but he played an active role in the pack antics. Luna commonly instigates said antics, and Boltz is often ready to get after his pup mate. The interactions between these two have been a bit more intense as the winter has progressed. Perhaps Boltz doesn’t like the idea of being subordinate to his sister.
There are many misconceptions that the older a wolf gets, the calmer, more docile, and generally safer the animal is to interact with. This is often a common mistake we see in wolf care with new staff entering retirement enclosures. Just because a wolf is older, does not mean they become doglike, or tame. Even at 6 years old, Aidan demonstrated to us very well the other day that he’s readily able to keep up with the 2 year olds. In this week’s photo we have Aidan, who had just leaped over several rocks, cutting off Luna’s path during a chase.
We’ve had a lot of animal activity outside of the enclosures recently. Earlier this week, a volunteer who had stayed overnight at the center woke to Grizzer bark-howling. This is often a territorial response, a severe warning to another that they need to back off. We do know that there is a wolf that has frequented the exterior of the enclosure, but we were unable to do a perimeter check before the snow had covered any potential tracks.
Luna has claimed her straw bed for the season. It’s not an uncommon sight to behold Luna resting in the front-most straw bed. She’s often resting in it by herself, but we’ve seen the other wolves join her now and then. Thankfully, she’s not as possessive of straw beds as she is of beaver.
Denali does have his limits, you can only be the focus of a mobbing for so long before it becomes much more irritable. In this week’s photo we have Luna in the process of pushing a few of Denali’s buttons, with another wolf already on his back. Currently Denali maintains himself as the second ranking male, and though Boltz shows few signs of really testing Denali’s position, the ranks could easily shift this winter.
Boltz is a very social wolf. More social with other wolves than humans perhaps, but a social wolf nonetheless. Very frequently he’s found sleeping beside another wolf, food begging to Denali, or perhaps playing with Luna. Lots of social behavior comes from Boltz to all of the pack members, but testing behavior comes with it as well. We’re seeing a very strong focus from Boltz towards Aidan. Whether this will lead to a change in status this winter is uncertain.
With the coming of winter, the wolves tend to become much more visible in the International Wolf Center’s observable enclosure. Wolves are built to thrive in the cold. Contrary to a hot summer day, the wolves have had an increased bout of activity during the day, and Aidan is an active participant in the activity. We’ve seen more playbows and other social activities from him, a break from the more stoic overseer we commonly see Aidan as.
