We still don’t know how Malik received a tear between his toes, but he is finished with his antibiotics, didn’t have an infection and is well on his way to healing. He is licking it which keeps it open, but also keeps it open. We can tell he is better, his spirits are up, he had a great time with the water hose on a recent hot day and he stole the shop vac hose when we were cleaning Grizzer’s pond.
Malik has an injury on his paw that happened sometime on Sunday night or early Monday morning. We didn’t see anything on the surveillance camera to indicate a scuffle between Shadow and Malik, but we have observed Malik sleeping in a small underground den daily during these heat advisory days. The injury looks like a tear, and it is likely that he got his toe caught coming out of the underground den. We are treating with antibiotics and are giving an anti-inflammatory daily. He showed dramatic improvement by Wednesday. He continues to lick it which keeps it clean, but makes it harder to heal.
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.
Malik has been weighed twice this summer, which is quite an accomplishment considering he’s been a bit hesitant around the scale. The success is based on a trail and error discovery. Earlier this summer Malik was having some significant issues with flies. He’s been cautious about approaching staff because Shadow can get possessive and drive him away. He’s also not very fond of the curator who seems to be at every negative event in his life (vaccines, immobilizations, Grizzer’s dominance etc.), and we have an additive issue with Shadow not allowing some of Malik’s favorite staff into the enclosure anymore. So, we take Shadow and the curator, and put them in the front part of Grizzer’s enclosure (while Grizzer is locked in back), then Malik can have his favorite staff to himself and he is much more relaxed and willing to get fly ointment and step on the scale. Malik doesn’t have much of a weight record, but he was still 92 lbs at 11 years of age, so this 90.2 pound weight is consistent with his retired life.
We know the weather is cooling the arctic wolves are returning to their “Face Off – Invite Chase” behaviors. We also see a lot of competition for greeting staff and Shadow can limit staff interactions with Malik.
This entry was written by visiting Wolf Care Staff Volunteer, Cameron Feaster. With an early arrival of winter, we begin to see a great increase in activity from all of our resident ambassador wolves, both young and old. In this week’s youtube video, you can see Grizzer accurately demonstrate this, as he performs the ‘Grizzer 500’ after scent marking his new straw bed.
I would like to thank all of the members and donors who support our educational mission at the International Wolf Center. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and would like to report that all of the wolves are doing well. We have some great pack interactions as the winter begins and our wolf care staff are so honored to work with these incredible ambassador wolves.
Grizzer has had a calm week, with very little to report. We had a group of Vermilion Students at the Center on Friday night burning some piles, so Grizzer had a lot of stimulus and a lot of people to observe from the cover of darkness.
Grizzer had another opportunity to conduct the Grizzer 500 race earlier this week. We have an educator who is assisting with medication delivery through the fence and it became apparent that Grizzer really likes her. We always do what we can to give Grizzer extra treats, extra staff time and stimuli that makes him excited. When we introduce new staff, they start by using the scat bucket and collecting scat. Starting as young pups, we condition the wolves to avoid interacting with staff when they have tools, including the bucket. That means staff must be consistent and give no social interaction, no talking, no eye contact and no touching the wolf. The pups pick up on this quickly and as long as staff are consistent this avoidance of staff with tools is a behavior done by the wolves throughout their whole life. If you watch this week’s Youtube video, you will see Grizzer in a full run, but when he sees the staff with he scat bucket, he immediately stops. This is a great management tool when trying to introduce new staff.
Grizzer’s had some good stimulus lately. In order to drain the pond, it required the Exhibit Pack to be locked in the front of his enclosure while the pond was drained. Grizzer does get excited while they are in his space, but he does a lot of posturing and scent marking when he gets to return to the area.
