Social Time

Grizzer had a great session with Tina (the dog) on Wednesday night. Tina was getting brushed in the yard (as a dog, she sheds in an unusual pattern), every time Tina finished with another layer of hair, she would run to Grizzer with residual hair flying in the wind. Grizzer rolled over several times for her and even got a mouthful of the airborne hair. Grizzer has developed a level of trust with the handlers, and when things go on the yard, we work really hard to protect him from stressful activities. It’s nice to see him have such a relaxed time and be distracted by the hairy dog with no tail.

Tina

Grizzer’s been getting more receptive to visit’s from my grandson’s dog, Tina. Maybe I should reverse that, Tina is getting more receptive to hanging out in the wolf yard and spending time at the fence with Grizzer. Since Tina is more subordinate in behavior than Oscar, we have removed the safety panel which allows more efficient deliver of morning nutritional supplements and gives Grizzer a better view of the yard. Grizzer displayed a submissive role over towards Tina and has returned to some of the activity he displayed when Oscar lived her.
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.

Massages

Grizzer spends more time getting massages than any other wolf here. Without competition, he can sprawl out and make sure wolf care staff spend all of their time making him comfortable. This week’s Youtube footage of Grizzer is dominated by staff interaction. When we are in the enclosure, I don’t have any other choice, he gets what he wants.

Alert and Active

Grizzer’s had so much stimulus from both the Retired and the Exhibit Pack using his space for a holding area during maintenance, a wild wolf trying to chew his way into the Retired Pack right behind Grizzer’s enclosure, a tree falling and doing some roof damage to his metal roof and the pack giving Aidan a hard time. All of these events keep Grizzer active and responding. If you watch the Youtube video when Aidan starts showing some rank order, you may hear a chain rattling in the background. The chain is from Grizzer getting excited and pawing at his gate. With Grizzer being in the middle of both packs, he seems to have twice the stimuli. I did also record one submissive roll over from Grizzer to my grandson’s dog Tina.

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. Grizzer was a bit stressed by the work crew, but calms down quickly when he’s back to his routine.

Tug-o-hose

Grizzer had his pond cleaned again this week, and managed to the hose from me when I wasn’t looking. There seems to be a certain amount of satisfaction gaining a possession that can be tugged and dragged with very little recourse from the staff. Grizzer had a great time, I on the other hand, have 20 feet less hose than I did at 8 am this morning.

Back Scratches

If you watch the Youtube video this week, Grizzer displays the most interesting facial postures that indicate he likes a back scratch. As the weather got hotter, the wolves dug more holes and some even retreated underground. Their winter coats have been growing in since mid-August and a late August heat spell is miserable, and is even more irritating when the thick winter coat fills traps sand in the undercoat. All the wolves have been presenting themselves to the staff for a good scratching and dust removal.

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.

Home Improvements

Grizzer had a busy week with some necessary vestibule work around his enclosure and some pond cleaning. He’s spent a fair amount of time in the back half of the enclosure while contractors work, but work is drawing to a close today and he should have his world back. The improvements will help dramatically as it now allows staff to monitor a wolf in holding overnight from inside the building. We found this to be necessity when Luna was in holding for a 12 hour fasting before her medical exam. There was a corner of the holding are that was behind a fence panel and we couldn’t see her. Which meant that I needed to sleep inside the kennel with her. While I may not be opposed to sleeping with a wolf, (especially Luna who has a tendency to sit on my head), other staff people may prefer to watch from the lab. We also find that the wolves may settle down better without staff constantly coming out to check on them. So, as with most of our enclosure upgrades, we always encourage Best Management practices and that includes the best facility design to care for our wolves. Grizzer is back up to 122 lbs which was his weight during the spring of 2009, when he was just turning 5. His highest weight was 129 lbs that fall. Maybe Grizzer is reliving his youth, certainly he has no food competition that would keep him from maximizing resources.

Fresh Meat

Grizzer started training in a new wolf care staff this month and so far, he’s liking the interaction of more people to give him massages. We know the Oscar relationship was special, but without a key wolf care staff and Oscar handler, we didn’t feel it was right for Oscar to spend so much time alone in the yard. Grizzer would socialize with him, but after a while, he did what most wolves do during the middle of the day, he took a nap, leaving Oscar to live a dogs life without a companion. Grizzer has good interactions with staff and got excited when my dog Tina showed some increase in confidence (it only lasted 20 seconds, but it is progress).