Aidan continues to remain very submissive to Shadow. He does seem to seek more acceptance from Shadow when there is chaos between Malik and Grizzer. Maya's focus on Aidan has slightly reduced, allowing Aidan more freedom to run and wrestle with Denali without getting grief. Aidan did enjoy the two young maple trees planted in the enclosure last week, although after his initial tugging, the trees remained and they don't seem to be a focus anymore, although one is a bit tilted, the root systems are intact, and the recent rain should help the trees flourish.
Written by Planning For Pups Program participants Dena Arntzen and Lauren Parker: Before Saturday's enclosure enrichment program, Aidan and Shadow shared a bonding moment on top of the den. The enrichment program brought a great deal of excitement to most of the pack, especially the yearlings. Aidan had great success! He fished beaver feet popsicles out of the pond searched all around the enclosure for other tasty surprises. After everything was eaten, Aidan continued to search, especially in locations where he had success during the program. This activity of going back to the same locations shows a complexity in his cognitive process.; he is able to associate those locations with the presence of food.
With summer brings heat, humidity, large crowds and various forms of stimuli for the wolves. During the Canine Cousins program today, the stimulus of two visiting dogs (belonging to Assistant Curator Donna Prichard) instigated a pack rally led by Shadow. While Aidan sometimes chooses not to join in a pack howl he participated today, although from a distance and while maintaining awareness for good reason. As is often the case following a pack rally, reassertion of dominance played out and Maya redirected aggression toward Aidan in a chase. Following the rally and chase, Aidan solicited dominance and reassurance from Shadow through face licking and submission to affirm his place in the social order of the pack.
When you see this week's video and photo, you will understand why we budget so much money for trees. The young wolves look for any stimulus, and they find it in the low hanging branches of the trees. Aidan has a piece of lower branch and ends up doing a tug of war with Denali, winning only a branch stub. The construction on the museum has started, surprisingly, Aidan is not stressed, but Denali is. So, Aidan has been dominating Denali while Denali is preoccupied with the noise. This helps Aidan's confidence.
Aidan has adapted to brushing by the wolf care staff. Unfortunately, he does a full submission most of the time, so he has all of his belly hair brushed, but not much on his back. Actually, his back guard hairs are a bit lacking, probably from spending so much time on his back in submission to Maya this winter. Denali, has a much thicker coat than Aidan. Aidan continues to show very active submission to Shadow, running and licking Shadow's face to see reassurance of his status in the pack. Aidan seems most bonded to Shadow in this pack, although he does spend moments with Maya, as the photo for this week demonstrates.
Written by "Pups at One Year" program participants Lauri Pecsok and Suzanne Wessa-Avello: Prior to enrichment, the pack is held in a separate holding area while the enrichment items are placed in the enclosure. In this weeks photo, Aidan is running from the pack holding area to enrichment, in this case four deer legs for six wolves. Aidan is often hesitant and unsure of himself in his interactions with his various pack mates, and running can be an uncomfortable stimulus for him as indicated by his ears turned back and his tail held somewhat lower. Still young and one of the newest pack members he's searching for his place in the pack, however he quickly reasserted himself when he discovered his brother had acquired one leg by challenging Denali to a tug of war. Persistence paid off as he happily ended up with half of that leg.
Overall, this summer has been a good one for Aidan. He is still the target of Maya's dominance, but has also been observed participating in more group howls, even from afar. He still seeks out staff for comfort and will follow staff around the enclosure when daily duties are being performed. We do see Aidan continuing to take advantage of Denali's anxiety during the building construction, and was also observed chasing Grizzer into the new slate den, as observed by this week's video.
Aidan continues to use the upper den enclosure, but is more confident in finding his way back down to the front of the Exhibit. Last week, he required some distractions by wolf care staff; this week, he watches the other wolves and is observant of Maya's distraction with Denali and uses this distraction to circle the back of the den. Once he is in the front of the Exhibit, he has no problems and limited chasing from Maya. In this week's photo, he is interacting with Denali who is showing less panic towards Grizzer.
There was some dominance aggression between Grizzer and Denali on Wednesday night. We watched the surveillance video from the Retired Cameras, and it appears the activity started right after the Curator left for the evening, around 6:05 pm. Aidan seemed to stay out of it, based on the lack of any bite wounds, but Grizzer and Denali were clearly both engaged in the activity, with some involvement from Maya. Aidan has demonstrated some great respect for Grizzer and is often found lying next to him in the straw.
Aidan is developing a much nicer winter coat than last year. This could be just the effects of a maturing wolf, or the fact that Maya and Grizzer are more focused on Denali, causing Aidan less stress. Aidan now has a routine in the mornings. To avoid having to compete for meds with the other wolves, he willingly goes into the small medical pen, waiting for the others to leave. The only problem is, when he's done, he doesn't want to leave either. This enclosure is close to the lab door and he has strong memories of his time in the lab with wolf care staff, listening to music when he was recovering from his neutering surgery.
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