Aidan’s finished his treatment for lupus, and the pigmentation on his nose has returned with the exception of two spots. We are keeping him on some additional vitamins and monitoring the pigmentation status closely. He’s been very relaxed and we are starting to see some strong social behavior that may be close to pair-bonding with Luna. This behavior will likely increase as the winter advances.
Sorry for the delay in logs, time is slipping by as we are getting ready for winter (which arrived last night). We have 4 inches of snow on the ground and whatever was laying in the wolf yard will now be stuck in the snowblower. Let’s hope there are no moose bones. Aidan is doing extremely well with a lot of good social contact with staff. We have about 4 days left with his Discoid Lupus treatment and we will be taking a break for a while to see the pigmentation stays on its’ own. Aidan has a clear command of the male rank order, but Luna still makes him cringe and avoid her. We have started to see him assert some dominance, but Luna’s fairly intense greetings can be overwhelming. We do see Aidan doing a lot more chasing behavior than earlier this fall, and the distended stomach issues that we noticed in late summer seem to be gone. The vets tested for parasites, cushings disease and even considered doing an immobilization for more invasive sampling, but we decided against taking him out of the pack even for a short veterinary procedure. He might have just had a bit too many of Luna’s leftovers.
While we have always witnessed Luna and Aidan in shared dominance behavior, we continue to witness some social behavior stimulated by Aidan towards Luna. This is usually in the form of subordinate behavior on Aidan’s part and Luna initiating a greeting. Aidan is confident and tolerant, but will assert some status if she becomes too interactive. As winter approaches, we expect to see an increase in some pair bonding behavior instead of just shared dominance behavior.
Aidan had a busy week with the International Wolf Center Post Symposium visitors. We had several guests to the Exhibit on Monday including biologist and handlers from the Mexican Wolf Project which created some great colloquial discussions. Aidan, who usually is bit reserved with groups, tolerated the visit well and spent a lot of time with the me as I discussed pack dynamic issues. It was a great opportunity for some professional dialog and I appreciate all of the networking stimulated by the symposium.
This week’s Youtube video features several clips of Aidan in a subordinate posture with Luna. He does set limits when she gets overstimulated, but it seems that Luna’s social greetings are getting better. In the male rank order, Boltz and Denali continue to wrestle and have equal time being chased or jawsparring with Luna. The one noticeable interaction is that when Denali gets to intense, Aidan is quick to put Denali down, but doesn’t do the same for Boltz. There seems to be a strong correlation to Luna’s interactions as well. Sometimes Denali may try to jawspar with Luna, but that usually leads Aidan to intervene. This will be the only posting this week due to the International Wolf Center Symposium in Duluth, Minnesota that starts on Thursday. There are still opportunities to register, check out the details at www.wolf.org.
Aidan has a few subtle behaviors that indicate he is not quite over the anxiety of last week, but he also has some strong submissive responses to staff and what appears to be the start of some pair bonding behavior with Luna. This week’s Youtube video has no narration because my voice is a bit scratchy to narrate. I challenge people to see if you can identify the behaviors that indicate a bit of stress, relaxation and social cohesiveness.
Aidan experienced some significant anxiety after a work crew from Vermilion Community College removed some problematic invasive species. Aidan is usually calmer, and we don’t know what trigger is response this time, but we know that Denali, Boltz and even Luna noticed a difference in his behavior. Aidan retreated to the back half of the habitat and wouldn’t even approach the front of the Exhibit, and when he did, he just sniffed, looked up at the sky, held his ears turned to the side and was quick to tuck tail and run. I spent several hours with him on Saturday evening and by Sunday morning, he had improved dramatically. On Monday, we had a dominant pair of wolves and the previous days tests from Denali and Boltz were quickly forgotten by Aidan. There is no doubt a level of frustration with our camera situation. I have been in contact with our tech support and they reassure me that the surveillance cameras will soon be streaming live video. I will definitely let everyone know when that event occurs.
The logs this week are all the same. It’s been a busy week. We started with the discovery of some damage to an outside security fence behind the Retired Enclosure. It appears a wild wolf attempted to get into the secondary security fence behind the retired enclosure. There were a significant number of boards torn from the fencing with a lot of teeth marks. Surveillance video shows that it likely occurred on Sunday morning, although we don’t have a camera pointing directly at this fence, Shadow showed some tension and agitation. We had a group of students from Vermilion Community College volunteer with some invasive species removal. This is critical as the plants that they were pulling harden off with hundreds of burrs that get stuck in the wolves coats. Unfortunately, Aidan seemed to have the most stress about the work project. He was agitated while he was in holding, then after the students left and Aidan was released, he proceeded to have some fear avoidance behavior throughout the weekend. This created some interest from the other wolves that saw the dominant pack leader showing some weakness. We impose a lot of limits on activity in the wolf yard as winter approaches, but the removal of the invasive species is critical work that saves a lot of wolf frustration as staff try to pull burrs from their coat.
Aidan has been completely relaxed this week. It seems the intense testing behavior experienced from Boltz a few weeks ago has subsided. Aidan showed a threat display that clearly indicated who was in charge. Boltz seems to respect that. So far, we have no medical reason why Aidan may have a bit of a distension on his stomach. He was sensitive to the touch, but that seems to have improved. The obvious cause is that he is over eating due to Luna’s needs. So, as you will see on Luna’s logs, we are redefining management a bit. If Aidan’s belly is from a few too many beaver popsicles, this is a good time of the year. Wolves typically lose weight over the winter as calorie output to keep warm increases.
Since Aidan asserted some active dominance over Boltz a few weeks ago, Boltz’s testing has diminished and the pack has been very calm. We also have reduced the number of programs and Behind the Scenes issues which stress out Aidan. If Aidan shows anxiety, Denali and Boltz are quick to take advantage of it. Historically, we know that the highest level of pack tension is when the new pups are between their first and 2nd year. The winter of 2001 – 2002 saw some dominance and the ultimate retirement of the 1993 litter when Shadow and Malik matured to 2 year olds. In 2006, Grizzer had a short bout of testing, but Shadow was such a strong pack leader, he showed Grizzer his place, and we had some good dynamics for several years. Aidan shows similar traits to Shadow and we will be watching to see if the same dynamics plays out with Aidan as the pack leader.
