Archive for: boltz

This week’s wolf logs are based on observations by our Biology 1476: Wolf Ethology participants

Melonie and Suzanne – The weather this week was unusually hot and humid for the Ely area, resulting in more resting behavior from the wolves. However, it was cooler on Wednesday. The wolves became anxious from the wind. Throughout the week, Boltz was ever-watchful of Luna, the wind overhead, and the flies. When not distracted by these elements, Boltz explored the enclosure and interacted with the other wolves comfortably. He spends a considerable amount of time resting on the sand pile, more than any other wolf. When not on the sand, he often moves into the shade where there is a shallow bowl. Even when resting in these areas, Boltz most often has his head raised, ears rotating, or one eye open.

I have said this many times, Boltz has some shyness that we will never overcome because he was nearly a month old when we met him.  But, the shyness is not just a socialization issue.  Boltz seems to also have an issue with bees.  He was stung when he was younger and that negative event has made him obsessed with the noise of buzzing flies, bees, hornets (unfortunately, we have a lot of the aforementioned). This makes it even harder to work with him because he is so panicked by the summer bugs.  You will notice he is less groomed than the other wolves, anything coming over his head makes him a bit nervous.  So instead of brushing, we pluck his hair.  We are working on his trust, but at this time, the only thing that works is if Boltz has Denali at his side.  These two wolves have a very strong bond.  We won’t give up, he may well be the future pack leader, so we want to increase our bond and his confidence.   He does have his favorite staff, so we know there’s hope. 

Every wolf has a different personality and Boltz is no exception.  He certainly seems to be wary of the unknown and likes to engage in social behavior with those he does know.   He continues to be the wolf that works for his meals, but has recently been shown sharing a weekly carcass feeding with both Aidan and Denali.  It’s Luna that rarely shares her meal.  As part of a spring parasite protocol, we acquired recent weights.

Boltz is believed to be a Great Plains subspecies, and may never reach Aidan and Denali’s weights (both Northwestern subspecies), but his more timid behavior may also be keeping him from maximizing the carcass.  We do hand feed Boltz smaller quantities of food whenever we thing he isn’t getting his fair share.  His weights as an adult appear to fluctuate between 109 and 112 lbs, which is still a large size for a Great Plains subspecies.  It is best to compare him to Grizzer (another Great Plains subspecies) during the same time frame.  As a yearling, Grizzer was 93.5, Boltz was 102.5.  By the time Grizzer was three, he weighed 110 pounds, similar to Boltz.  But, what Boltz might have to look forward to is that when Grizzer met the next generation of Exhibit Pack members in 2009, he  must have been taking advantage of extra pup food because his weight between a three year old and a four year old increased from 110 pounds to 121 pounds. 

6/5/2013	Boltz	102.5 lb
8/14/2013	Boltz	109.56 lb
6/13/2014	Boltz	111.9 lbs
5/1/2015	Boltz	109.34 lbs

 

 

Boltz was three years old on March 17th, and in honor of his birthday, we attempted to provide him a significant treat in the form of a cow leg.  Unfortunately, Boltz’s lack of confidence in keeping the steer leg resulted in Luna spending most of the webinar enjoying it, with only a brief loss to Denali.  As the evening advanced, surveillance video captured Boltz enjoying the leg 4 hours after the webinar ended.  Boltz did manage to guard 3 beaver feet.  As the photo shows, his lip curl is sufficient to keep the other wolves at bay.

While much of the winter was spent testing the dominant male, Boltz’s testing seems to have calmed down a bit. We still see some following behaviors, direct eye stares, and high tails now and then, but the interactions do not appear to be as intense as in previous months. Younger animals will often test their older, aging counterparts for quite a while. In some instances this will continue until the older animal’s retirement here at the International Wolf Center, but in other cases, testing may be put to a halt by the dominant animal. It’s hard to say how Boltz’s story will go, only time will tell.