shadow – Mar 2, 2009 12:00 AM

This past week, the curator was out of town attending conferences for the HP grant and the Society of American Foresters. While we manage with a style of multiple wolf care staff, the change in routine can have an impact on the wolves. To distract the pack from this change, items are given to provide them a behavioral outlet. Last week, a bison hide that was donated from a hunter was given to the pack on Monday. This provided a significant amount of behavior including tug of war, guarding behavior, active submission and dominance and overall excitement. Shadow was surprisingly interactive over the hide. Usually, he observes the pack and doesn't get involved in tug of wars over items, but with this hide, he was quite excited. The most interesting dynamic after watching the video was Aidan reaction to Shadow and the constant active submission displayed by Aidan. He was frequently pushing himself on Shadow to seek dominance, and Shadow complied. The full video clip of the bison hide will be included with the YouTube video this week.