Denali helped Boltz eat the beaver on Wednesday, which is a good distraction for Denali. Luna seems to spend a fair amount of time dominating Denali and Denali just takes it. When we see Denali resting comfortably on the greeting rock, we know that the pack, especially Luna, is calm.
Denali seemed to really focus on Aidan’s anxiety and was observed doing quite a few behaviors that could be classified as dominant. Fortunately for Aidan, Denali didn’t display much for follow through, which meant that his new found status was frequently ignored by the rest of the pack members. When Aidan did finally rejoin the group and assert some rank, Denali did display some impressive H1, 2, 3, 4 responses, indicating that he was pretty anxious himself to be back on the bottom of the rank order. The good thing for Denali is that while Aidan demonstrates strong leadership, he doesn’t push extend his dominance to a daily ritual. If things are calm, Aidan would rather relax than assert authority. Of course, when he’s relaxing, one of the yearlings comes over and puts an end to it, so the authority piece is often tested.
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.
Denali hasn’t been the focus of much dominance, Aidan seems to be in a tolerant, social, relaxed mood. So, Denali has plenty of time to smell the trees, watch for migrating birds that eat fermented berries and fall down. This keeps him occupied for hours. He seems very content with his new found hobby.
Denali was observed in some very submissive posture towards Aidan that wasn’t stimulated by dominance. It was merely a gesture in greeting. Even though Denali is the largest, he shows no inclination in taking over leadership of the pack or being dominant. He seems to be very content to socially engage, eat his food and not be the center of attention.
The logs are all the same this week. As the curator, I work full time during the summer months and when I return back to school, my hours are reduced to part time status of 20 hours a week. Friday was my first day back, so the Friday routine of Youtube and log postings was affected. I hope to return to the Friday schedule as I get settled into a routine, but the 20 hours are dedicated to wolf care, and combined with other wolf care staff, the wolves won’t notice a change in schedule. As far as the wolves, we have had a very calm, socially active week. It’s also been over 80 degrees, which might have an influence on behavior. I will be back to posting individual logs next week.
Well, Denali continues to be the largest wolf we have ever managed with a weight of 138.6 lbs. He is also the most gentle animal when doing basic physical care such as fly ointment, grooming, checking teeth and doing tick checks. Denali is unlikely to test Aidan for status, these two seem to have settled the rank order between the brothers. But, Luna really seems to focus on Denali and this stimulates Boltz and Aidan to join in making for some noisy male rank order issues. As wolf care staff, our job is to make sure all wolves are safe and all them to work through the pack dynamic issues on their own, but we know that keeping Luna with a good supply of food will be helpful for Denali.
If you watched this week’s Youtube, you may feel a bit sympathetic towards Denali. Luna’s been picking on him a bit. But, if you rewind back to 2009 – 2010, Denali has the same relationship with Luna that he had with Grizzer. The difference is Denali is receiving the obnoxious juvenile behavior rather than giving it. These types of interactions will usually work themselves out. Denali seems to prefer to avoid conflict rather than start issues. So, if we can keep Luna occupied with prey species, food, hides and anything that she can shred and toss, Denali will get some rest.
We hope everyone has had a Happy 4th of July and continues to enjoy the days of summer. All wolves are doing well here, we are monitoring a growth that opened on Shadow’s cheek and are doing some repairs to the pond. Grizzer had a new concrete floor installed in his den because he was continually digging under the foundation. Luna’s growing back a winter coat, so we must be on the downhill side of summer. The Ethology Course begins on July 20th, we are sure to have some good behavioral observations to report next week.
Denali is very acclimated to the grooming process associated with fly ointment and is willing volunteer to get a daily dose. He's big, but very gentle for staff as well as Luna and Boltz. There seems to a certain amount of juvenile behavior that has returned since the pups we introduced last summer. His most famous behavior is the "Squash", usually done by pups who sit on each other with no regard for their littermates comfort, for Denali, but pup's are usually evenly matched. When Denali sits on Luna, we sometimes intervene, but we have learned, Luna can make Denali move. The gentle personality doesn't seem to like the in your face style of the only female.
