Logs written by Nanny Team members, Lynne Haines and Sherrel Grabler:<br> Both pups were happy to see wolf care staff and nannies this morning. The pups ate most of a deer leg over the night. Denali was not interested in eating gruel. Denali walked along the fence line as the audience sat down on the bleachers for the Behind The Scenes Program. Aidan used Denali to display a head-shake while grabbing him by the throat. He settled down in the yard, focusing intently on a little boy’s teal colored shoes. Denali slept through the 11 am program. During the 5 pm program, and for a good 20 mins longer, Denali was quite focused on a deer leg, gnawing on it and growling at Aidan whenever he approached.
There are no significant events with Denali this week, the warmer weather kept most of the wolves up in the woods, resting in the cool soil. By Thursday, an incoming cold front increased the wolves appetite, and Denali was sure to get his share of beaver.
Sorry, the logs will be the same for all wolves today. Spring is a busy time with a winter full of straw, bones and raven droppings creating a busy workload for wolf care staff. The pack is doing well, general observations show Aidan getting bolder and definitely spending social time with the pack, mostly Shadow. A recent cold spell has created a situation where Maya became more intense and Shadow showed more status to Grizzer, but these are short-lived situations. Spring is here and the days will continue to get warm, even though we had below zero wind chills yesterday. Denali made a sprinkler hose out of one of our good garden hoses. While the curator was spraying the rocks trying to clean the white streaks left all over the rocks from the ravens, the pack was occupied with the beaver, and all was going well. Grizzer came over and pulled on the hose, but quickly stopped. Denali watched this and decided he should try the hose, but being a younger undisciplined youth, he didn't stop as quickly as Grizzer and proceeded to tug and tug until he bit through the hose. Staff moved Grizzer and Denali into holding and continued working. There is far more to do in the enclosure, but after this week's experience, Grizzer and Denali will a challenge.
The logs will all be the same today. We’re doing some improvements to Malik’s enclosure, so Malik gets all of my time today. This past week has been busy getting the Exhibit enclosure ready for a Chamber of Commerce mixer on Wednesday night. Windows were washed, straw was removed, the summer wood chips were added and the pond waterline thawed with enough time to fill the pond. Of course, the upper pond line is still frozen in the concrete, so the waterfall isn’t flowing, but the main pond has been a source of stimulus for the pack. When it finally thawed, the weather was 70 degrees and sunny, and all wolves romped in the water, followed by a Grizzer/Denali chase though the woods. Aidan is still getting some dominance from Maya, usually followed by one of the excitable chases though the woods, but as the photos show this week, Aidan is engaging Maya in social behavior. He does a double foreleg stab while she is on the top of the den. We have noticed some instability with Shadow after he was chasing Grizzer and Denali, he seemed to have a dizzy spell, was off balance, before planting his paws in a wide stance and gaining his stability. As with any aging wolf, we will watch Shadow closely. The YouTube video this week shows the Chamber of Commerce mixer, giving the view of a visitor to the Center. Malik had a good week, enjoying the well shaded tree cover in his enclosure.
We, the wolf care staff, continue to marvel at Denali's growth and how lean and tall he is. When he fills out, he is going to be an even bigger wolf. This is no surprise, considering how much he consumes. A typical routine in the past a few days after feeding would find the wolf care staff picking up and disposing of the uneaten remains of leftover carcasses as they rotted in the hot summer sun. Now…well, we are lucky if we can even find a beaver skull to clean up and use for programs! It seems that either they have become more adept at their already-expert caching abilities, or they are consuming everything being fed. Due to finding no remains, we think the latter is the case.
Denali showed some fear avoidance behavior as the museum construction begins, and will likely last the whole summer. This has been good for Aidan, who takes the opportunity to dominate Denali when he's nervous. To people who think the curator's job is glamorous, you may want to take a look at Denali's video clip this week. After taking a cached beaver from Maya, he proceeds to bring it to me and drop it on my shoes, then roll it around a bit before he takes it to the greeting rock. Denali sure does love the mid-week beaver feedings.
Denali is asserting more dominance and will likely increase in rank before the winter is over. The photo and video are from the same scene. It was initially started by Shadow howling, then Maya aggressively chased Aidan, then Grizzer went after Malik, then Shadow put an end to all the chaos by dominating Grizzer. Denali, who wasn’t involved in the other situations, took advantage of Grizzer. Such is the life of a rank ordered pack of wolves. We weighed the wolves this week and Denali is up to 110.67 lb from an April weight of 108 lbs.
Denali, the tallest wolf in the Exhibit Pack, maintains a strong food possession behavior. He is the reason we are still feeding twice a week. Even though he consumes more food than any other pack member, he is lean in body size. He continues to display ride-up behavior on all the adult males, so far, Shadow is the only one that puts an end to this obnoxious juvenile behavior.
Denali has been actively stalking small rodents that have started to gather nesting material and food scraps within the enclosure. He is also a very keen on the migratory birds that have started to land within the enclosure. Denali is also starting to show more testing behavior of Aidan and we have noticed that Oscar is a good barometer of tension in the pack and in the wolf yard.
Denali has been very playful lately, a good indication that fall is on the way. Although, temperatures have been near the 80 degree mark, not very conducive for a wolf in a full winter coat. Denali was curious about our recent concrete project in the enclosure where we had a chainlink panel around the slate den. He jumped on the panel, but didn't get over it or dig under it, allowing the concrete to dry without wolf prints.
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