shadow – Aug 13, 2010 12:00 AM

This week has been extremely warm for Ely, Minnesota standards with temperatures nearing 90 degrees and humidity exceeding 80%. It has been extremely hard on the wolves, and wolf care staff are doing what they can to make them comfortable. Wolves have are covered in hair and don't have sweat glands at the surface of their skin, resulting in a cooling mechanism of panting to evaporate heat and moisture off the surface of their tongue. This isn't a very efficient method in high humidity. Each wolf has distinct tolerances of heat, and has their own method for cooling. <br>Shadow has been digging, trying to create an underground area near the pond and on the back side of the smaller den. He's also been caching a significant amount of the food we've given, which tells us that we have probably satiated him. We are hoping for a weight in the next week, but based on a physical observations and how he feels, we think he gained a fair amount of weight since retirement. Thanks again to the individuals that supported Shadow financially through this transition, we think he's back on track and his photo this week shows an alert, healthy individual who happens to still have dirt on his nose from a cache. On August 1st, Shadow was weighed after a large feeding, resulting in a probability of higher weight than actual. Today, we believe we have a more realistic weight of 85.4 lbs. This is a good weight gain since July, and after the weighing, he ate 2 more pounds of chicken, with 10 more thawing in the sink for tonight.