In an effort to allow the wolves to investigate the Retired Enclosure after the loss of Lakota, the pack has been given supervised access to the Retired Enclosure several times in the last week. It is great stimulus for the pack, and especially the pups, who spend a great deal of time looking for cached items. Denali was very active, bounding around the entire enclosure, and was rewarded with a deer leg that Lakota had cached in the rock den. Denali continues to show good alliances with Grizzer, and gets along well with the rest of the pack. A YouTube video was posted with the activity in the Retired Enclosure.
Denali is quite a different pup than Aidan. He is much more relaxed and takes the daily ritualized dominance behavior in stride, rarely submitting to anyone. When Aidan hears dominance, he runs and muzzle licks, trying to submit to whoever is interacting. Denali remains more independent, and is observed to associate with Grizzer more than any other adult pack member. Of course, Denali and Aidan spend most of their time wrestling and exhibiting other social behaviors.
Denali continues to gain in size, outpacing Aidan and mirroring Grizzer’s growth rate. Denali doesn’t seem to have a particular association with any one adult wolf, he responds similarly to each one. If there’s food involved, they all need to look out. Denali is much more likely to seek out Aidan when he wants to interact, while Aidan will seek out Shadow. Both pups have integrated well and have been a great addition to the pack. The plan for pups predicted that the focus would be on the young and not the aging 8 years old, and so far, the plan is working. A new YouTube video has been posted showing scenes from the early winter in Ely.
When Aidan was transported for surgery, Denali was drawn off into the Retired Enclosure and spent the day by himself. He had a deer leg, and staff monitored him throughout the day, but he was anxious. It was important to move Denali out of the pack so the pack wouldn’t just isolate Aidan who was off site. Denali was placed back in the pack for the evening, while Aidan slept in the lab, and drawn back into the Retired Enclosure at 4 am on Saturday to join Aidan, who was ready for some outside time. Denali was very relaxed after Aidan joined him. They greeted with full tail wags, and facial licking, and before long, they were scuffling over deer legs and beaver. Denali never investigated the suture site, (neither did Aidan, even when he was in the lab) and both settled in to sleeping in the den boxes. Although, Aidan took the big one and Denali was stuck with the smaller rock den, which is fine when curling up, but a draw back if you like to stretch out when sleeping. At the introduction, Denali did some active submission, but not as much as Aidan. Aidan seems more bonded to Shadow and seeks his attention more than Denali. In his video, you will see Maya checking out Aidan’s suture site, then Aidan began licking his site, and before long, Denali started licking at himself. We’re not sure if that’s sympathy grooming or just wanting to be one of the pack.
Denali had a similar response to the cornish game hen as Aidan. Scent rolling on foreign smells is in the canid genes. Another behavior that seems to be innate is the desire for testing whenever possible. If there's a chance for Denali to show some high tail and status, he takes it. Of course, Aidan is a pretty formidable packmate and Denali's tests usually result in some following behavior from Aidan, but it is good exercise for them both.
Due to the weekend blizzard and the resulting time spent shoveling and blowing snow, the wolf logs will all be the same today. Despite windchills in the 30 to 40 below range and nearly a foot of snow, the wolves are doing great. These are animals that are clearly adapted to winter environments and they are much more comfortable than during a warm summer day. Staff provide straw beds to give them a comfortable place to rest and insulates them from the cold ground, the dens are dry and well covered in straw, but unless the wind is bad, the wolves usually don't use the densites. Staff make sure there are plenty of scraps available for a quick snack, and the water heaters are monitored daily to ensure there is always a fresh, warm source of water. We are aware of some issues with the pond cam's exposure problems, and we are doing some adjusting to see if we can repair it, thanks for your emails about the issue. I hope to get a youtube video posted later in the week, filmed on a -26 below morning to show the activity levels of the wolves in these temperatures.
Denali continues to be a bold pup, with strong food defense behavior and boundless energy to jump on any wolf that is down on the ground. In this week's video and YouTube posting, Shadow is rolling in the fresh snowfall. Denali is actively jumping on Shadow, resulting in a threat display from Shadow, but that doesn't phase Denali. Although, when the aggression gets a little intense between the adult male rank order, Denali just runs around a bit clueless about how to get involved. That's the sign of a pup, and we hope he stays a pup for a while.
Denali is a very active pup that constantly seeks attention and interaction from staff. He certainly reminds staff of Grizzer at that age. The pups do spend a fair amount of time wrestling, and Denali is usually squashing Aidan (an ethogram term when one wolf sits on another). Denali has been a bit jumpy on staff, but with proper handling procedures, he is quick to stop. Most of his behavior is an effort to get attention, and staff need to be very skilled at interpreting behavior when working with the dynamics of 6 wolves. To stimulate the pack, we did two enclosure enrichments last week, one was scent based that resulted in scent rolling behavior, the other was food based that stimulated the wolves to search and find treats. A YouTube video showing both enclosure enrichment activities will be posted.
Denali is certainly growing and his winter coat is very well established. He has also become very obsessed with food, easily consuming 6 – 7 lbs at a feeding and dominanting any food that is brought into the enclosure. He is also more actively involved in dominance rituals than Aidan, who tends to hold back when there's a lot of action.
The pups are 6 months old today. We didn't get a weight on them since we woke up to 2 inches of snow and ice on the ground and the scale needs a clean, level place for the legs. We will not likely weigh them again until spring. So, the update for the week relates to the stimulus provided to the pack.<br> Denali has become quite aggressive with food possessions. He is not as likely to be dominated by the pack either, which may be giving him more confidence. In this week’s video clip, you will see Denali do a slightly harder muzzle bite on Shadow as Shadow approaches the bison head. Of course, Shadow is extremely tolerant of the pups when they respond this way. Denali has no problem taking on Grizzer over food, in fact; he’s probably modeling Grizzer’s behavior. Denali managed to get an entire bison leg away from Maya, not an easy feat.
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