Denali and Aiden received their first taste of deer meat today, when staff brought a leg with residual meat into the program. They were extremely interested and ignored the audience during the entire program. The only drawback is trying to get the deer leg back at the end of the program. They continue to eat well, and are growing at a good rate.
Denali continues to show a significant daily weight gain and has been weaning off the formula and consuming over a pound of gruel a day. His most significant observation in this log is his tracking of a Raven. He visually watched a Raven fly overhead and became very focused with the movement. He followed it until he couldn't see it because of the building.
Logs written by Nanny Team Leader Jill Badyrka: Both pups are beginning to exhibit predatory behavior with stimuli other than each other. Aiden and Denali stalked and followed back and forth a small bird hopping along the fence line in the wolf yard. Although Aiden typically begins the play fight with Denali with a stand-over and pinning, Denali during one of the Pup 101 programs tried to take a deer leg from Aiden with a stand-over. He then proceeded to test Aiden by trying to drag deer leg, although unsuccessfully in the end.
The pups are 52 days old today, we don't have weights today, we are waiting for the new scales arrival tomorrow, so we don't have to weigh them with the sling. Aiden moves too much and is too alert for the sling. The following logs were written by Jill Badyrka: Both pups received a veterinary visit today in the Wolf Lab. Initially, both displayed a bit of shyness with Chip, but ultimately both pups came to Chip and sat quietly during the exam. The curator held each pup for their vaccination. Both pups remained relaxed for the remainder of their exam, without incident. In their first Pup 101 of the day, Aiden continued to display increasingly focused food aggression with a beaver tail, although Denali was successful in distracting him away from the tail with the peeling of bark from a birch log. It is quite interesting to watch their cognitive and strategic skills develop, while abiding by innate “rules of the pack such as food possession.
The pups are 53 days old today. The following log was written by Team Leader Jill Badyrka.<br> Communication is developing with a constant influx of increased vocalizations. When the Exhibit Pack howled at 1:45 am, and again beginning at 6:25 am for two distinct sessions, both pups woke and joined in. The range of intonations is increasing, as well as the types of vocalizations. The pups are emitting barks, yelps, squeaks, and various combinations of these interspersed with the howls. During Pup 101, for the first time, the pups shared a deer hide from which they both tore and ingested small pieces. While Aiden displays a keener predatory sense, Denali has better mastered his fear avoidance, exhibiting no fear during a Behind the Scenes program by walking up to the public fence and examining the human participants. After two days of not being able to obtain accurate weights with the sling scale, the arrival of the new scale today enabled an easy weigh of 20.2 pounds for Denali.
While there are general stages of development, and the pups are now in the Socialization Period, having transitioned from the Transition Period, the uniqueness of each pup’s development is a true wonder to witness. Aiden weighs approximately 2 pounds less than Denali, yet is wiry strong with agility surpassing that of Denali. For example, Aiden is able to easily climb the den box in the lab enclosure, while the larger Denali is still clumsy and not able to jump up and maneuver his large paws. However, in the evening Pup 101 program, Denali displayed more food aggression than Aiden with a stand-over and a squash, and Aiden actually submitted with several submissive paws. This is rather new for Aiden who has been the main aggressor. Today was also the first day in the outside pup enclosure, where they both spent about an hour. Both pups displayed much curiosity and interest while inside, and once brought back out to the wolf yard, returned to the gate of the pup enclosure and tried to paw their way back in.
Welcome back to the logs, we're not sure what happened, but it is repaired now. We have a bit of data to post today, the pups were 8 weeks old yesterday, they gained weight and we have some new measurements. One of our team leaders pointed out that Grizzer's and Maya's body measurements weren't matching Denali and Aidan's. The issue is the change in body measurement positions. After reviewing a few research projects, the standard measurement we agreed upon was to measure the sagittal crest of the pup with the head held down at a 90 degree angle measuring a straight line distance to the base of the tail. In 2004, the measurement was a combination the nose to sagittal crest, the sagittal crest to base of tail and total length of tail. When we total this for Denali, it measures 107 cm total nose to tail length. Denali is a robust pup that stands 42.5 cm tall.
Written by Ann Beyer, Nanny Team Leader Week #5: During this period of the pups' socialization process, nannies and wolf care staff are observing many behavior patterns emerge, particularly more pronounced "play fighting". For example, while Aidan frequently initiates play fighting and tries to dominate Denali, Denali will vigorously defend his deer leg or beaver tail by growling, snapping, displaying a lip curl, and doing a hard muzzle bite on Aidan. It is interesting to watch the behavioral developments each day.
Midday the pups were caught outside during the initial downpour of a thunderstorm. The startled pups found their way to shelter and waited there until it was time for the Pup 101 program. They did very well during the program. Denali decided to tempt his brother with a deer tail, pulling it away just as Aidan would reach for it. Later in the lab, as the storm subsided, the two brothers once again fell into furious play. Written by nanny team members Lee Williams & Ann Beyer: During an excited game of kill the cardboard box, Denali practiced dominance behaviors on Aidan by body slamming Aidan, standing over Aidan, biting Aidan’s neck, and head shaking. He also gained a little protein by eating a few bugs, which apparently also came in to find shelter from the storm.
Written by Kristin Radermacher. Denali started morning out with a good howl – rejuvinating the sleepy nannies. He followed that by jumping at the window asking to go outside to play. After a quick breakfast of his favorite chicken Denali went outside to play and greet the pack. Denali defended a deer leg from the staff and growled when it was taken away during the Pups 101 program.
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