Written by Pups at One Year Program participants Deb Lewis and Kelly Godfrey: An entire deer was brought in for Saturday night's What's for Dinner program. Denali, as usual, was food-focused at first on the deer. Actually he was the only wolf interested in feeding on the carcass. Having it all to himself while the other wolves ignored the meal, he extracted the entire liver first and devoured it. He continued to feast, solo, on the deer for another 15 minutes before walking away satisfied.
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. If I had one word for Luna it would be resilient, followed closely by defiant. She has overcome so much adversity in her life, yet nothing stops this wolf. The defiant piece might be our own fault. In our concern for her physical well-being, we protected her from all dominance, creating a wolf that doesn't seem to have any limits. Aidan's working on it, and might have some results, but as the only female in a pack, she is the dominant female by default.
Aidan's been showing more active dominance over Denali and it's usually stimulated by Luna. He continues to show some protective nature over the pups, and if Denali is too intense, Aidan quickly puts an end to interactions. We have been watching for more signs of pair bonding between Aidan and Luna. Even in a spayed and neutered Exhibit, pair bonding can occur between the dominant male and the dominant female. Behaviors may include shoulder to shoulder parallel walks, sleeping in close proximity to one another, rolling over for each other and facial greetings that display a strong social bond.
Boltz continues to be submissive to Aidan, but when Luna is jawsparring with Aidan, Boltz takes advantage of the distraction to do a ride-up testing behavior. Aidan shows some anxiety when he's the pups are excitable, and quickly displays some hard muzzle bites to take control of the situation. When Aidan is dominating Denali, Boltz rarely gets involved. As Boltz matures, we may see him move to the second ranking spot, especially if Luna supports him.
Shadow's feeling good these days. He's bright eyed, active and controls the top of the den. We were able to configure a wireless webcam to view the retired pack after having a significant amount of network troubles with a network camera and having issues with the amount of cable to run all the way back to the retirement enclosure. The only issue is how a wireless signal will be impacted by leaves on the trees, and the camera is technically an indoor camera that we put in an outdoor housing. So far, the camera is working well, with the exception of a few days when the wireless signal has been impacted by snow. We've had a few nights below zero and it seems to function well. Let's hope this continues; we know it is a priority and we will do all that we can to keep the camera live.
Aidan has been observed in some increasing social behavior with Luna and Boltz, but there still seems to be some antagonistic behavior from Luna that results in jaw sparring and dominance from Aidan. We've also noticed that when Aidan and Luna are jaw sparring, Boltz has been quick to help Luna by jumping and grabbing Aidan from behind. This clearly creates some anxiety for Aidan and he usually retreats. It seems Aidan would rather avoid conflict, but Luna seems to seek it out.
We are celebrating Boltz's birthday on Sunday. So, what does a birthday celebration mean? Well, it usually means a special treat, but with Boltz's timid personality, we will likely have to guard his treat for him. What will likely happen is that we will give every wolf the same treat so Boltz gets his share. Birthday's mean more to humans than wolves, but we do take this time to honor each individual wolf and the contribution they make to our educational mission.
Luna seems to be increasing her guarding behavior of not only food, but now staff. This is usually a trait displayed by Aidan, and it actually causes some conflict between Aidan and Luna. At this point, Luna usually wins, but not without some jaw sparring from Aidan. Staff have be very observant of the behavioral interactions to avoid getting in the middle of an issue. This is the challenge of working with a social group, rank needs to be identified and respected when greeting individuals.
We've been watching the interactions between Luna and the adult males to see if there is any closer social relationship building as the lone female. It's a bit young for pair bonding of a dominant pair, but we did experience pair bonding between Maya and Shadow by February 2005. Of course, Maya was a bit more mature than Luna is right now. So far, we still see Aidan rolling over for both pups, he is more watchful of their interactions and does show some dominance to both pups. We will continue to watch interactions in the upcoming months to see if pairbonding is going to occur.
The Wolf Ethology students are starting the behavioral observation component of their course and they are questioning how to tell Boltz and Aidan apart. It is difficult; there are times when I have to take a long look before identifying them from a distance. Boltz has not reached his full body size and will fill out significantly in the next year, but his height matches Aidan's. The best way to identify him is to look at the behaviors; Boltz is attempting to ride up on a frequent basis, he is still displaying a lot of pups jaw sparring and wrestling with Luna and he is submissive when activity gets too aggressive. He also has a characteristic look on his face like no other wolf here and is displayed in this week's photo.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.