shadow – Apr 14, 2008 12:00 AM

Of all the wolves on site, Shadow seems to seek the most pleasure from fresh snow. He displays many episodes of a behavior we term “snowplowing, this is where a wolf puts their head down in the snow, and pushes their face through the snow like a V-plow. It is usually followed by roll over in the snow, a fast jump up and a race around the area. If wolf care staff are close, he jumps up for a quick face greeting and runs off. He’s pretty spry for a wolf nearing 8 years old. Today during wolf care, Shadow actually submitted for curator, Lori Schmidt, something that her rarely does for anyone but Nancy Gibson, the board member who bottle-fed him and created the strongest bond with him during the critical bonding period in the first few months of life. This was an incredible honor for Lori to have Shadow in such a social mood and willing submit to a belly scratch. This situation with Malik showing more dominance toward Grizzer may also be impacting Shadow. Shadow can relax a bit more without having to keep a constant dominant role over Grizzer.