Visitor

The logs this week are all the same. It’s been a busy week. We started with the discovery of some damage to an outside security fence behind the Retired Enclosure. It appears a wild wolf attempted to get into the secondary security fence behind the retired enclosure. There were a significant number of boards torn from the fencing with a lot of teeth marks. Surveillance video shows that it likely occurred on Sunday morning, although we don’t have a camera pointing directly at this fence, Shadow showed some tension and agitation. We had a group of students from Vermilion Community College volunteer with some invasive species removal. This is critical as the plants that they were pulling harden off with hundreds of burrs that get stuck in the wolves coats. Unfortunately, Aidan seemed to have the most stress about the work project. He was agitated while he was in holding, then after the students left and Aidan was released, he proceeded to have some fear avoidance behavior throughout the weekend. This created some interest from the other wolves that saw the dominant pack leader showing some weakness. We impose a lot of limits on activity in the wolf yard as winter approaches, but the removal of the invasive species is critical work that saves a lot of wolf frustration as staff try to pull burrs from their coat.

Shadow Got His Groove Back

Shadow’s getting his groove back, at least his howling anyway. I did a Behind the Scenes on Thursday and he started some whining and tried to howl. I started a low throated tone and he switched octaves and joined me. I know people miss the web cam, but a torrential downpour flooded and shorted out the camera. The good news is, we are very close to making the surveillance cameras (which I call old reliable)… live on the web. Please bear with us a few more weeks and we will be back to broadcasting the retirees.

Smaller Feedings

Shadow is back to smaller feedings more frequently, he is so reluctant to heat when it’s hot and we have had several large items spoil that had to be removed. So, it’s back to increasing the budget for Chicken and Beef, but whatever it takes to make these retirees comfortable. I heard a great how from Shadow today, with temperatures in the 60’s, we are bound to hear more. The only problem is our temporary webcam had an electrical short in the torrential downpour last night, so the camera is temporarily off. We had a contract to rewire our internet cables, and dedicate a separate band width line just for the web cams, so my dream of a stable video streaming image may be coming true.

No New News

The logs are all the same this week. As the curator, I work full time during the summer months and when I return back to school, my hours are reduced to part time status of 20 hours a week. Friday was my first day back, so the Friday routine of Youtube and log postings was affected. I hope to return to the Friday schedule as I get settled into a routine, but the 20 hours are dedicated to wolf care, and combined with other wolf care staff, the wolves won’t notice a change in schedule. As far as the wolves, we have had a very calm, socially active week. It’s also been over 80 degrees, which might have an influence on behavior. I will be back to posting individual logs next week.

Healthy Weight

The heaviest weight we ever recorded on Shadow was 95 lbs as a 5 year old wolf. If you may recall, we moved him off display in 2010, not because he was deposed from the Exhibit, but he had become somewhat intolerant of eating in front of the crowds for the feeding program, and started to loose weight. We would obviously feed him alternate meals than the carcass, but he became so focused on keeping himself between the public and the pack, that he started to lose weight. By the time we decided to retire him in 2010, he was down to 71.87 lbs. It only took us 2 1/2 months to get his weight back up to 89 lbs, and that’s where he’s stayed since then. The growth on his face has returned, but not with any significant size. From our experience with Lakota, these facial growths need to be removed at the root to keep them from reoccurring, but since it is such a small growth and the risk of anesthesia is greater, we will just keep monitoring it.

Cool Weather

Shadow’s feeling great in this cooler than average fall weather (yes, I know it’ still August… but tell that to the North wind and high pressure systems). We had 39 degrees Fahrenheit with frost warnings. These are the days that make arctic wolves (especially 13 year old arctic wolves) active. The growth that we dealt with last month has returned after our initial removal for testing. These benign growths do seem to be common as the wolves age.

Sponge Bandit

Just finished washing the water containers in all of the enclosures and once again, Malik stole the sponge. For a 13 year old wolf, he is alert. Malik stealing a sponge is an ongoing interaction, but it does have some other benefit than just Malik entertainment. If I need to move Malik to another enclosure or need to distract him so someone can apply fly ointment, the yellow sponge will be a distraction. There hasn’t been any additional damage to the wood security fence behind Shadow and Malik’s enclosure (a wild wolf did some damage in response to food in the retired enclosure a few weeks ago) and Malik seems far less anxious than he has since that event occurred.
This will be the only posting this week due to the International Wolf Center Symposium in Duluth, Minnesota that starts on Thursday. There are still opportunities to register, check out the details at www.wolf.org.

Marking and Scraping

Malik’s foot is completely healed and the presence of the wild wolf behind the enclosure seems to have stimulated a significant amount of marking and scraping behavior. He’s been a bit anxious about some late season facilities work, but surveillance video shows him resting on the den with Shadow. We haven’t observed much seasonal dominance between the pack mates, but temperatures have been quite warm for September.

Berry Wine

Malik has taken a different task to the fall migration predatory drive. Rather than waste energy stalking, chasing and likely not catching birds, Malik lies quietly among the mountain ash trees under the very berries that provide a good food supply to the song birds. As we get a few more frosts, the berries will become a bit fermented, and the birds will be a bit tipsy. This will likely improve Malik’s odds for catching something. Although, it appears he just likes to be in the mix, and a meal is not a requirement.

Visitor

The logs this week are all the same. It’s been a busy week. We started with the discovery of some damage to an outside security fence behind the Retired Enclosure. It appears a wild wolf attempted to get into the secondary security fence behind the retired enclosure. There were a significant number of boards torn from the fencing with a lot of teeth marks. Surveillance video shows that it likely occurred on Sunday morning, although we don’t have a camera pointing directly at this fence, Shadow showed some tension and agitation. We had a group of students from Vermilion Community College volunteer with some invasive species removal. This is critical as the plants that they were pulling harden off with hundreds of burrs that get stuck in the wolves coats. Unfortunately, Aidan seemed to have the most stress about the work project. He was agitated while he was in holding, then after the students left and Aidan was released, he proceeded to have some fear avoidance behavior throughout the weekend. This created some interest from the other wolves that saw the dominant pack leader showing some weakness. We impose a lot of limits on activity in the wolf yard as winter approaches, but the removal of the invasive species is critical work that saves a lot of wolf frustration as staff try to pull burrs from their coat.