Written by Ethology Participant: Sarah Prusha<br> I am compelled to think of Grizzer, a disperser perhaps in the wild, although looking at him, he is as likely would have fought to the death. His intense stare and evasive behavior hide the wolf. I picture him being in his prime. He did approach me one time, to smell my scent and lick my hand. I was honored to be acknowledged by him.
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Written by Ethology Participant: Nathan Wihch<br> From my observations of Denali over the past week I have concluded that Denali is subordinate to Aiden. At times it appears that he forgets this fact as he is often observed sent marking and scratching even though he is not the dominant male. He sometimes engages in play with Boltz and Luna, but is often exploring on his own or lying on the greeting rock. It appears that Boltz tests Denali a lot and it would be interesting to see how that relationship develops in the coming years, as Boltz grows in size and confidence.
Written by Ethology Participant: Anna Schmidt<br> Malik, the smaller of the International Wolf Center's Arctic wolves, is often exhibits a docile behavior. This is due to his thirteen years of age. He lives with his brother Shadow, in an enclosure and is often found resting in the den to get away from the Minnesota bugs. Malik spends part of his day wandering around the perimeter of the enclosure to cheek out sounds. He whines when he is nervous or wants attention. When an ambulance is heard in the distance, this initiates the white wolves to start howling. Even though Malik is old for a wolf, he is still observant. His ears prick forward, his nose raises up to sniff the air, and his narrow eyes focus forward whenever there is a strange stimuli.
There's been many video and photo sessions this week showing Luna dominating Denali with Aidan just watching from the side with a wagging tail. He only seems to step in when Denali asserts too much status, but mostly leaves the activity to Luna. As summer is in full swing, we do see Aidan getting a bit more defensive when there's too much activity around the wolf yard. It's always important to remember the influence that external sources have on the pack dynamics.
The retired area has increased vegetative cover with the recent rainfall and cooler temperatures. Malik spends a lot of time in the dense cover. His recent activities relate to caching some of the mid-week beef feedings and defending from Shadow. When he does howl with Shadow, his lower ranking status seems to favor howling from the security of a dense vegetation.
Written by Ethology Participant: Sarah Prusha<br> Upon seeing the two two retiree Arctics took my breath away. Aspects of Shadows behavior gives a clue to the dominant leader he once was. He spends time on top of the den, watching. The first day of meeting, he took the high vantage point of the den and howled. He was asserting himself, letting strangers know he was still ready to defend his territory. He investigated new beings to his area. As Malik would urinate, Shadow was very soon marking over. As I watch him now, he seems to exude a quiet confidence an insight to the dominate leader he once was.To study the complex social behavior of these animals has made a significant impact on me. Education is the key and Shadow has educated me as well.
Written by Ethology Participant: Dolf Hergert<br> As a participant in the recent Wolf Ethology Course at the Int. Wolf Center, I took an active role in behavioral observations of Luna. Initially concerned about her prior injury to her leg, my observations of Luna lent me to believe that she has little difficulty in maintaining her rank in the pack. Although a limp is often evident, she often instigated chases with the other wolves that covered large areas of the enclosure. Other data collected through observations indicated that she spends a large of time eating.One particularly amusing bit of observation was on the evening of July 22, 2013. Luna and Boltz were snapping at dragonflies for about five minutes.Luna caught one and promptly walked away and ate it. Another memorable incident was when Boltz was feeding on a deer carcass and Denali began walking towards him with his teeth bared. Luna's response was to quickly walk over to Boltz and sit down which barred Denalis approach to Boltz. Denali ended up turning and walking away and Boltz resumed feeding.
Luna was extremely active proceeding the cool weekend and evening temperatures in the upper 30's. She may have over did herself. On Tuesday morning, she seemed a bit sore, so we scheduled a vet check and will be following up with some x-rays early next week. This is just a follow up now that her bone growth is near completion as she matures to a two year old. It will also be a good time to get a complete blood panel and make sure she is still on a good nutritional track. She's not acting like there are any issues, but we are in a calm time of the year to remove her for a few hours of medical care. It's a bit risky to take a wolf out of the pack, especially a dominant wolf like Luna. But, she is the only female, so she should have no problem transitioning back in after the clinic visit.
Someone recently asked me if I had a favorite wolf. Certainly some people may think it's hard not to think of some individuals with a greater concern because of their individual needs, but the reality is, every wolf is different and they all have some unique characteristic to make them special. So, I thought I would dedicate this week's wolf logs to those unique characteristics. Boltz is extremely timid and he has a way of looking at staff or wolves, with his head down and a gaze of mistrust. This may be a result of him being much older than the neonate stage when we acquired him, or the challenging summer of keeping Luna protected by stopping Boltz's dominance interactions. Staff need to move very slowly around Boltz, quick movements make him nervous. He shows trust in staff, but only if it's on his terms.
Denali has a great photo this week. What's so great about lying on the den? Well, he seems to know when it's best to just let the yearlings do their thing. It's the facial expression as he watches them that I find interesting.
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