When determining the difference between Axel and Grayson, we can’t help but notice the more elongated face and overall adult-like appearance of Axel versus Grayson’s more pup-like features. Yet, when it comes to behaviors, Axel clearly is still pushing some of the juvenile testing traits showing very little concern for wolf or human to show him some limits. His weight continues to increase, reaching 105 pounds in this week’s monthly weigh-in.
This week’s logs were written by the Bio 1476 – Wolf Ethology Students:
At weekly Saturday night feeling, Denali kept Grayson away from the carcass, which allowed Axel to feed freely on the carcass. After a good meal, Axel was lazy. The warm temperatures had all the wolves seeking shade. Axel brought the deer leg from the Saturday night feeding in to the shade and continued to feed. Axel is an instigator of play, chases and any activity that require tail pulling. If you see a wolf pulling a wolf’s tail, it would be Axel. Axel had many observations of tail-pulling as a pup. He continues to maintain a weight near 100 pounds.
Axel is the most interested in activities within the Center’s auditorium and is often at the window watching the people as they walk through the Center. The predatory drive is active with the yearlings and is easily stimulated especially if people are excited, talking in high pitch voices or if kids are running. We experienced some testing behavior between the yearlings and Denali. Grayson took the lead, but Axel was pulling Denali’s tail similar to how he used to pull Grayson’s tail when they were pups. This testing seems to have subsided over the weekend, but based on previous experience, the fall season will show more. Staff are actively working on protocols to address young wolf exuberance. We need to be mindful of the fact that human intervention and separation can create a scenario that magnifies dominance situations. It’s been our experience that the right distractions with appropriate timing can diffuses tense situations.
It has been a great pleasure watching these arctic pups mature to yearlings. Their personalities that began as pups are becoming more defined as yearlings. Between the pair, Axel is the one to do the most exploration with this mouth, whether it be branches, wolf hair or his littermates muzzle, there seems to be an inhibited bite when Axel is nearby (meaning he holds back from a harder bite pattern). The other developing behaviors relate to their facial expressions which can be broadened to include their ear postures and eye positions. Similar to Aidan, Grayson is very expressive when face to face interactions include some type of heightened energy. Muzzle biting and jaw sparring qualify as heightened energy. Axel also seems to use that heightened energy on the deer carcass, holding his own while the pack tries to each take their share.
There have been several improvements in the Exhibit Pack thanks to a generous donation from an incredibly generous young woman, Anika Hahn. Anika chose to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah by inviting friends and family to make gifts in her honor to the International Wolf Center. To read more about Anika’s commitment to wolf education, check out the Fall 2016 Issue archived on our website https://wolf.org/wolf-info/wolf-magazine/fall-2016/. This week’s photo shows Axel enjoying the benefits of a new misting system to help keep the wolves cool on summer day. This is just one of the many projects funding by Anika. Other projects include new shade trees, rocks in the pond to allow the wolves an opportunity to climb in and out of the water, a new pump housing to protect the electrical pumps and filters needed to run the pond and a new UV filter system to reduce algae growth. It has been a busy spring getting all of these pieces in place and the improvements to the Exhibit have been a tremendous improvement for the wolves.
We are attempting to weigh the pups every month on their birthday. Axel has reached 100 pounds. As a yearling arctic wolf, this is a very good weight. Our past arctic pack leader, Shadow only weighed 95 pounds in his prime.
Here are the weights for Axel to see his progress over the last few months:
Date Age Weight Weight Gain
4/1/17 11 months 96.8 lbs. 4.2 lbs.
5/2/17 12 months 97.8 lbs. 1.0 lbs.
6/2/17 13 months 100.3 lbs. 2.5 lbs.
In order to assess the behaviors of maturing yearlings, we rely on outside observation programs to gather data independent of the daily wolf checks. Recently, the Vermilion Community College Ethology class completed 100 hours of observation on the Exhibit Pack and had the following assessment on Axel:
“Axel was one of the most active wolves during our observation. He is a bold and curious wolf, and spent a lot of time interacting with the others. He was usually the first wolf to walk up to the observation area to investigate the people behind the glass, and did so more often than the other wolves. He interacted the most with his litter mate Grayson, but was not timid in front of any of the other wolves. He spent a fair amount of time with Aidan, who seemed very patient with the young wolves. Axel would often test the other wolves, even Aidan, perhaps trying to find his place in the pack. Axel seemed to be very confident. Other times he was passively submissive to Aidan when Aidan felt that he needed to show Axel his place. When Axel wasn’t interacting with the other wolves, he spent much of his time investigating. He often wandered around the enclosure and was interested in what was happening outside of the fence. Overall Axel seems to be a very confident and inquisitive wolf, and displayed a lot of investigatory behavior.”
The yearlings have been enjoying the start of the pond season. Even though they joined the Exhibit Pack while it was still functioning last fall, there was so much stimuli that they didn’t have chance to explore. Now that the yearlings are comfortably integrated into the pack, they are spending plenty of time exploring. The rock in Axel’s reflection is one of the cooling rocks that was part of the Anika Hahn donation to enhance the lives of the Exhibit Pack. Having the ability to swim in the pond and climb on adjacent rocks keeps the wolves cool. Anika’s fund also supported additional trees to the Exhibit to increase the shade options for the pack.
We had a successful Working for Wolves weekend. Thanks to all the participants and wolf care staff for helping to improve the lives of our ambassador wolves. In this week’s photo, the three subspecies of the Exhibit pack are shown. From left to right, Axel, arctic subspecies, Boltz, great plains subspecies and Denali, northwestern subspecies. We were impressed with the wolves tolerance of the work projects. Axel spent a fair amount of time watching the projects and was particularly interested in the Saturday afternoon barbeque.
Being able to distinguish the differences between the 2016 arctic pups has been a challenge since their arrival in May 2016. Initially, we had a collar on Axel, but the pup scruff to scruff (and paw to scruff) wrestling made it problematic to use a collar, so we switched to painting toenails. This also became problematic as the pups heightened sense of smell was aroused the minute the cap was taken off the bottle even in a deep sleep. Fortunately, the personalities began to develop and there were some significant differences in how the pups responded to their external environment. Axel was typically investigating and facing the consequences while Grayson was content to observe before acting. No doubt, the wolf that is wearing the birch bark as a hat was usually Axel, that was almost a year ago. Now, as he matured to a yearling, Axel has a much more narrow, elongated muzzle and there are some significant white patterns around his eyes to aid with the physical identification and his behavioral patterns haven’t changed much. To learn more about Axel and Grayson, join us for their 1-year Birthday webinar on May 2, 2017 at 6 pm Central. Follow this link to register, https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/.
Axel and Grayson will be a year of age on May 2nd and the golden tint to their pelage that was prevalent as pups seems to be fading. As the spring advances, they will shed their undercoat and be left with their guard hairs that will typically bled better than their winter pelage. We’re already seeing Axel shed some undercoat on his back leaving a unique pattern of hair heightened at his mid-back area. It is important that Juvenile pelage isn’t confused with hackles when recording behavior. To learn more about the milestones of Axel and Grayson over the past year and our assessment of future pack dynamics, consider joining us for their Birthday webinar on May 2nd at 6 pm Central Time… Follow this link for more details and the registration for all of our wolf care webinars. https://wolf.org/programs/webinars/
Since the introduction in August 2016, we have often commented on Axel seeming to mature faster than Grayson. This is just anecdotal observations; we don’t have any real assessments other than weight. But, in this week’s photo, he certainly has appeared to make that transition from pup to adult physically. Although behaviorally, he fits well with the juvenile descriptor that we use to describe wolves from year one to year two. What’s a juvenile? An individual that shows more grabbing, jumping, tugging and overall not quite respecting personal space of other pack mates. His behavior makes him easy to identify on the webcams, but also, look at his almond-shaped eyes, they are more pronounced than Grayson.
| Date | Weight |
Gain since last weight |
Age |
| 1/6/17 | 89.2 lbs | 2.8 lbs | 8 months |
| 2/2/17 | 92.8 lbs | 3.6 lbs | 9 months |
| 3/2/17 | 92.6 lbs | -0.5 lbs | 10 months |
| 4/1/17 | 96.8 lbs | 4.2 lbs | 11 months |
