Boltz and Aidan continue to show some really strong behavioral patterns. In this week's Youtube, while Luna is doing some intense grab bites to Aidan's neck, Boltz does some inhibited bites with less intensity than he did a few months prior. This could be a calming of the hormones or a response to some increased social behavior that's occurred in the last few months.
I have noticed a significant reduction in testing behavior from Boltz as the winter progressed. He seems very subordinate to Aidan, but not intimidated. As the winter progressed, he was often observed feeding with Aidan or resting with him. The associative bonds between individuals are crucial when interpreting the dynamics of the pack.
Boltz has all the looks of a skinny, awkward juvenile. When Boltz stands next to Aidan, he has the same height, but he's not quite the same stature as his older pack members. Juvenile wolves generally don't have the dense undercoats of full adults, so they always look a bit skinny their first year. Boltz has a combination of a thin coat, a juvenile body and a pair of large adults that haven't begun to shed in his social pack. He'll catch up, by next year, you will need a defined behavioral key to identify Boltz from Aidan.
Boltz has been doing some active ride up behaviors towards Aidan, but as soon as Aidan gets serious, he submits. It's nice to see Boltz gain some confidence and we certainly wonder how long Aidan will allow him to climb all over him without some limits. We do see Boltz and Denali pairing up a bit, and sometimes it's against Luna. The good thing for Luna is that Aidan doesn't tolerate much rough housing from Denali towards the pups, so he usually intervenes if Denali is too physical.
Boltz is gaining confidence, but still seems more like a pup than Luna. It's encouraging that Aidan takes the time to engage in social behavior with Boltz and we can really see the compatibility between Boltz and Aidan. This will be important when Boltz nears maturity and the behavioral drive to climb rank intensifies. We always want to prepare people for the potential for rank order changes and the aggressive interactions that lead to change. We experienced it in 2010 when Aidan and Denali reached 2 years of age, but the difference for Boltz is that Aidan is a strong and confident leader who is forming alliances. In 2010, we removed Shadow from the Exhibit and we left a pack with no definitive leader. Boltz may mature and test, but he is maturing in the presence of a leader that is clearly defined.
One behavior we've noticed about Boltz is that he is a bit mistrustful of anyone human or wolf around his food. His facial expressions usually include a timid stare, with some ear expression resulting in his ears going back. He is one of the oldest pups that we have socialized; at almost a month of age before meeting wolf care staff, he will probably never have the strong bond that we have with the other Exhibit Pack members.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
We've been noticing a lot of interesting facial expressions from Boltz, especially when Luna is involved. He uses a combination of eye stares, ears pricked forward and head turns when Luna seems to be pushing the limit of his tolerance. Even though these displays are frequent, we usually see Luna and Boltz resting together, and Boltz using Luna as a pillow on many occasions.
The logs will be the same this week. We had snow on Monday that required a lot of effort to gain access to all the gates, water containers and dens. Thanks to Danielle and Linda for helping in that Monday morning check. We also had to redistribute straw beds for all the enclosures, a task that can only be appreciated during the spring Working for Wolves program when we have to remove all that straw. We are very pleased that Shadow and Malik are back to their usual invite chase behaviors and both have fully recovered from the gastrointestinal virus that occurred a few weeks ago. Grizzer is more social than ever and staff continue to have relaxing checks on a daily basis. Most of the extreme sub-zero weather is behind us and even if we do have a cold night, the days warm up quickly. Rank order traits are starting to emerge in the Exhibit Pack with Luna showing Denali that she will jaw spar despite his over-towering height advantage. Fortunately for Luna, Aidan watches from and pins Denali if things get a little intense. Spring fever starts kicking in for staff and wolves alike as the warm days of March seem to stimulate some strong social behavior (at least for the wolves).
All of the work Oscar did this summer paid off for Boltz. He immediately assumed a submissive posture with the adult wolves, similar to his greetings to Oscar. This created a very calm introduction for Boltz. He submitted repeatedly and the adults greeted excitedly with no issues. He continues to be very tractable to both Aidan and Denali, often following Denali to the front of the Exhibit from the upper enclosure. We will be conducting the analysis of the Behavioral teams data collection sessions to determine if Boltz has a preference for adult interactions. At this point, he is tractable to both Aidan and Denali, but he does show intimidation when there is dominance between the adults. Luna shows no intimidation regardless of what's going on in the enclosure. As you can see from the weights, Boltz has had no problems adjusting and has taken advantage of the carcasses available in the Exhibit. Here are the postings since last week.<br> Date; Days old; Weight in lbs.<br> <li>7/28/2012 134 51.37<li> 7/29/2012 135 51.9<li> 7/30/2012 INTRO 136 51.5<li> 7/31/2012 137 52.4<li> 8/1/2012 138 52.8<li> 8/2/2012 139 54.2
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