Luna continues to demonstrate some active dominance and most of the time, Denali is getting the focus of her attention. Other than that, Luna is busy stalking birds, caching food, possessing everything that is brought into the enclosure and getting some of her undercoat removed not only through staff brushing, but also through her own self grooming. She is stiff when she's lying down for extended times, but she has no problems keeping up with the pack and on most days, setting the pace of pack activities.
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The last time we weighed Boltz was last October when he weighed 85.5 pounds. We were very concerned about his weight all last summer since he lagged so far behind all previous pup litters as far as individual weight and weight gain. We are happy to report that he is now 102.5 pounds as a yearling and he is well within range of our other yearling weights which included 108 lbs for Denali, 106 pounds for Aidan and he topped Grizzer's yearling weight of 93.5 pounds. We have been noticing that Boltz is getting a bit more assertive over Aidan, especially if Aidan is distracted by Luna or Denali. We have witnessed this behavior before, yearlings really begin to test and can become intense between their 2nd and 3rd year of age. If the pack leader is strong, these tests are usually squelched by assertive dominance (which we saw in Shadow's case with Grizzer, Denali and Aidan's yearling tests), but if Aidan is compromised by an auto immune disorder, then we may see more intensity. It is critical for the dynamics that all wolves are feeling well and able to maintain their status.
Denali has the most winter hair remaining and is the least bothered by the black fly season. I would also have to say the Denali is the idea wolf for management. Not only does he just stand and allow a full job of brushing, but he does the same thing for his vaccinations. It's a real challenge to vaccinate a wolf with a subcutaneous injection when he has so much hair.
Written by Pups at One Year participant Andi Nelsen: At the Pups at One Year program, participants, the majority of the time, was spend with behavioral observations of the pack and speculating on what the future may hold. Wil Aidan and Luna pair bond? As the current dominant male in the pack, Aidan has a very dynamic role in the Exhibit pack. As Shadow tended to do, Aidan is generally the one who hangs back and observes and subtly controls the the behaviors of the others. For example, at the enclosure enrichements and the Saturday What's For Dinner program, the others engaged before he did. But eventually, he did eat and marked some of the enrichment items (ice block). In addition to the Pups at One Year program, a bus tour from the Twin Cities came up, with large Behind the Scenes group. This is a scenario that can create stress, but Aidan handled it quite well. With fly season in full swing, a new spray for the pack was applied, seemingly with success. All wolves seemed to be shaking their heads less after application.
Written by Pups at One Year participant Gail Ramee: Luna hung back a bit when the deer was first offered at the What's For Dinner feedng. She spent a good deal of time behind the rocks under the eaves. Once we put cedar chips down, she dug out some new beds. First thing this morning she joined Aidan on top of the slate den and hung out with him until wolf care. She didn't come down for wolf care for a bit, but when she did, she was moving well and did a little running around and was very social with the Behind the Scenes group, rubbing against the fence and whining. Her coloring is even more striking with her loss of her winter coat. She has some silver hairs showing through her black coat that makes her really shiny in the sun. During enrichment, Luna found an ice cube and laid down by the pond in the sun. She appears to be much less flipping her ears from fly annoyance. Today she spent some time licking the large ice block. She seems to frequently enjoy the privacy and coolness of the den up the hill. During the day, Boltz joined her and then left for the other den. Luna followed him a few minutes later but didn't go back in with Boltz.
Written by Pups at One Year participant Audrey Sheffield: Saturday's enrichment activity encouraged Boltz to get into the pond to fish for apples. Of all the wolves, Boltz seemed to enjoy the apples the most, eating three and even caching one. Both Boltz and Luna are bothered most by biting flies because their yearling coats are thinner than the adults' coats. Boltz will snap at flies, spin around, then run tuck-tailed into the den for relief. A new fly deterrent spray tried on Sunday shows some promise for relief from the relentless flies. Boltz continues to test Aidan when an opportunity arises. Luna and Aidan wre observed doing some gentle jaw-sparring, while laying sphinx-style. Boltz ran over from the den and proceeded to ride-up on Aidan and mouth Aidan on the back of the neck. Aidan put up with this behavior until Boltz continued to try to assert himself. Aidan stood up and walked away from Boltz.
We weighed the wolves this week and Grizzer weighed in at 118.6 pounds. He shows no signs of age related weight reductions. He's definitely as strong as he was when he was a yearling. Here's a review of his annual weights since he was a yearling. <li> 5/6/2005 Grizzer 93.5 1 (Yearling) <li>5/2/2008 Grizzer 110 4 years <li>4/22/2009 Grizzer 121.25 4 years, 11 months <li>4/29/2010 Grizzer 124.52 5 years, 11.5 months <li>6/14/2012 Grizzer 115 8 years, 1 month <li>6/4/2013 Grizzer 118.6 lbs 9 years 1 month
Luna seems to be adapting well to the role of dominant (not doubt only) female. She is tenacious and is starting to show some body postures to match her attitude. A T-1 tail is when a wolf's tail is raised above the back showing status. There are many demonstrations of this tail posture by Luna in this week's video. The one behavior we are waiting to see if her tendency to pair bond with one of the males. We have a short clip of he jumping off a rock and pair bonding with Aidan, but it only lasted a few seconds. She has her wrestling behavior with Boltz, some associative behavior with Denali (although it's usually more food oriented), but not much indication that she needs to pair up with anyone. She seems willing to take things on alone, but due to Aidan's involvement in dominance over Denali, it's usually Aidan and Luna in active dominance.
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.
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