With the rising hormones of fall, Denali appears to be content with where he lies within the pack hierarchy. He is quick to submit to Aidan, and is tolerant of the testing from Boltz. It’s hard to predict what role Denali will play when the day comes that Boltz may grow into the dominant male rank, siblings often form alliances quite well, and often reinforce one another’s rank. Until then however, Denali still remains the 2nd ranking male in this hierarchy.
In the wild, many wolves nearing the age of 2 will often disperse from the pack in order to find their own mate to create their own pack. In other cases, they may simply test the rank order within the pack they’re born to, and potentially climb the hierarchy. In captivity however, dispersal is not an option, so testing the rank order naturally comes next. Boltz is finding his way into these testing behaviors. Now and then we see Boltz attempting to ride-up on Aidan, or perform some chin rests. These are all dominance behaviors of a young male attempting to gain some status over the higher ranks. Aidan seems to be taking it in stride now, but it’s unclear if this rank order will be so set in the coming years.
Chilly days have reached Ely Minnesota, giving us the clear hint that winter is not far off. Because of this perhaps, the wolves have become quite active in the enclosure during the day. With the coming of winter, hormones are beginning to increase, and we may be seeing a preview of the winter dominance displays to come. Aidan has certainly been reminded of this as well, as Boltz has begun testing statuses again. Aidan doesn’t seem to concerned however, during this week’s ‘What’s for Dinner?’ program, where are wolves are fed in front of a live audience, Aidan was seen socially greeting and interacting with the two-year olds, rolling around and submitting to them.
This behavior doesn’t mean that Aidan has lowered his own status, it likely reflects his confidence in his status. We’ve seen this rolling around and submitting behavior from previous dominant animals, as more of a social display rather than a dominance one. If one of the other animals begins pushing his limits however, Aidan is quick to remind them of their lower rank.
Luna has more or less returned to her regular self, often initiating many of the dominance displays we see within the enclosure. We have seen some new things however. In the recent dominance displays, she has been much more willing to roll over for Aidan. Granted, she’s still often the one initiating these disputes, but there seems to be a few submissive bones in her now and then. Speaking of bones, as we mentioned in previous logs, Luna is back to normal levels regarding her nutrition and vitamin D. Last week she performed her first Modified Raised Leg Urination (MRLU), on her injured leg even. This behavior is typical of a dominant female, but we haven’t seen Luna perform it until recently.
Wolf care staff spent a great deal of time on Saturday cleaning Grizzer’s enclosure, removing dead branches, scrubbing ponds, and adding new wood chip bedding. We try to limit the amount of time we hold wolves off from their own enclosures, as it often stresses them to be removed from portions of their territory. But Grizzer did exceptionally well during this cleaning, spending most of his time on top of the retirement den, observing the work. After it was all done, he took a dip in his clean pond, and raced around the enclosure in his Grizzer 500 style.
With fall in the air, hormones are on the rise, and dominance interactions are becoming more intense by the day. Denali is quick to dodge these interactions as much as possible, and doesn’t appear to have any desire to challenge his brother Aidan for the dominant position. Often when the others are busy with such interactions, Denali finds his way to wolf care staff to solicit greetings, or to some food that’s being ignored by the others.
During wolf care’s last webinar, where participants could view a live lecture inside the exhibit pack’s enclosure from their computer, Boltz was quick to test Aidan when he was briefly found in a subordinate posture. This was a reminder to wolf care staff that he is a young male, still looking for weaknesses and opportunities to climb the rank order. It’s very possible that we could see some of this climb, or at least some attempts at it, this winter.
Since Aidan’s temporary examination off site last week, he has returned to his more or less regular routine. The examinations came back negative for any diseases, so it’s been wolf care staff’s task recently to simply keep Aidan comfortable and as stress free as possible. Not an easy task when he lives with 2-year-olds that are quick to test rank order. Aidan is quick to make his point known however.
Redirection is a common behavior we see in Luna, often getting into the other wolves’ faces when possessing something, or simply when she appears to be in a dominating mood. Aidan typically deals with a lot of this redirection, but since his reintroduction after the examination, staff have noticed a slight decline in these outbursts. As I type this I can see her blocking Aidan from Denali in a small dominance sequence on our security cameras.
In the past we have seen wolves reinforce another pack member’s status, especially as a dominant wolf. Maya was quite famous for this behavior of dominating other pack members who would test Shadow or Grizzer in the pack. It could be a similar display we’re seeing here with Luna, reinforcing Aidan’s rank as the dominant male. It’s not certain whether this behavior will continue into the winter, or if we are interpreting this behavior correctly. Science has not, and may never be able to see into the minds of animals, we can only interpret the behaviors we see.
Keeping wolves in holding for several hours means that Grizzer was separated in retirement during the entirety of the exam. Each wolf has their own way to deal with stress, Grizzer’s just happens to be foliage removal. One of the birch trees near the front gate of retirement was the victim of one of these outbursts, and was knocked down (again). Wolf care staff placed it upright again after Grizzer was allowed back into his enclosure (The roots somehow survived both tear-downs).
