As much as Aidan aligns with Shadow, Denali aligns with Grizzer, which can have its’ problems, as Grizzer has taught Denali a few bad habits, like pre-feeding destruction, but so far, we are managing it. The pups are still fed on a daily basis except for Sunday after the large carcass is fed, and Wednesday, when we try to give the pups a deer leg or beaver. Last week, we fed a deer leg and Grizzer got it, then we fed another and Maya got it, but Denali doesn’t give up, he food beg to Maya until she gave up and let Denali eat. Aidan needs a few extra feedings as he is not as bold as Denali. Aidan and Denali were 5 months old on Saturday, September 27th.
Denali continues to be food dominant, and spars with Grizzer over any carcass that is fed, although Grizzer continues to be quite tolerant of the pups. Denali usually wins his piece of the carcass which is evident in his size. He stands taller than Maya, and is definitely flourishing in this pack. The pups still spend most of their time with each other, as littermate bonds are extremely strong. This is evident in the relationships between Malik and Shadow, Grizzer and Maya and Denali and Aidan.
While Denali's testing has decreased, his investigatory behavior has increased. He is very curious about all activity around the enclosure and has been recently spending time in the wooded portion of the enclosure independent of the rest of the pack. He interacts with Aidan, but there's times when he even appears surprised at Aidan's dominance.
Denali has had a harder time with the separation of Grizzer than Aidan. Denali seeks Grizzer out and has had many howling bouts with him. He has been sleeping near Grizzer's enclosure and is frequently standing near the fence line. A staff member observed the following; "When they were running around Grizzer was standing and biting at the fence then when Denali saw Grizzer standing he ran over there and anded up laying down by Grizzers area". Aidan and Denali are showing no behavioral signs of wolves that deposed their dominant pack members, such as Malik and Shadow showed in 2002. They continue very low throated howls and when they do interact near Grizzer, they don't display high tail postures. I just finished a necropsy for one of the MN DNR Conservation Officers, on a wolf that was killed by other wolves in the wild. He described the scene as lots of tracks, scent marking and scraping of the ground, which is typical when there's a winner in a territorial dispute or a dominance rank change.
Aidan and Denali had a successful neutering and were back in the pack holding area throughout the weekend for recovery. They did well, but were quite a hand full for the wolf care staff on 24 hour a day duty from Friday night until Monday morning, when the pups returned to the pack. The introduction back to the pack was similar to the first day, with all the adult males joining the pups in the pack holding are prior to release. The pups sutures are healing well, and they are on antibiotics for a full week. The pond was drained before they returned to the pack, so their sutures would stay dry. Unfortunately, temperatures reached 90 degrees today, so the pups stayed nice in cool in an underground den at the top of the enclosure.
The wolf logs for the Exhibit Pack will contain the same text, due to extra time needed for Lakota (see Lakota's log). The Exhibit Pack is doing well, consuming a lot of food and spending quite a bit of time in and on the new den. The wolf care staff heard wild wolves howl several times on Saturday's overnight, which may explain why Shadow has been doing so many lone defensive howls lately. Aidan appears to be catching up to Denali's weight, and the pups continue to eat on a daily basis, either a carcass with the pack on Saturdays and Wednesday's or daily chicken, beef or venision during the other evenings.
Denali continues to be the stimulator of wrestling behavior, with many short bursts of chasing around the enclosure. He has increased his activity dramatically since the cooler weather arrived, and continues to interact with Grizzer. It's interesting to watch more mature behaviors develop, he has become much more skilled at posturing, and using his body to block other wolves. He is attempting to use direct eye contact as a testing behavior, but his juvenile mind is easily distracted, and he doesn't hold the stare very long.
Written by assistant wolf curator, Donna Prichard:<br> While Aidan seems to have many similar behavior and characteristics of Shadow, this seems to be the case with Denali and Grizzer. Like Grizzer, Denali is very food oriented. The pups are still being fed approximately once a day, in addition to the weekly What’s For Dinner feeding. Denali & Aidan’s appetites are very good, though Aidan does tend to get easily distracted when staff are feeding him. Through the week, Denali and Aidan are currently eating ground beef or chicken. At one feeding, the pups consumed 22 large chicken thighs and six lbs. of ground beef! Needless to say, growing pups have voracious appetites, and it is evident when we see how fast Denali is growing and gaining weight. At this point in time, we predict that Denali will probably weigh more than Grizzer did at six months of age.
We had a little problem with video editing this morning, so all the logs will be the same and we hope to get video in the logs and a new Youtube video posted by the end of the week. The fall colors have been tremendous in the enclosure, and thanks to local moose hunters, we gave the pack a moose head mid-week. The pups were actively feeding on the moose head, but soon cached it, and have not been back on it since. They consumed an entire deer this weekend, despite the warmer than average weather conditions.
Sorry for the delay, a power outage seemed to take out the internet connection on Friday night and it continued through the weekend. So, the wolf logs will be all the same this week as we have already moved into a new week and 2 snowstorms have resulted in another foot of snow to clear from the wolf yard, the gates, the fences and den sites. It’s been a calm week. We are trying four different techniques to keep the pack in a lower stress environment. We continue to feed the Exhibit pack small amount of chicken Monday through Friday with a deer carcass or beaver on Saturday nights. We also are using Dog Appeasing Pheromone spray in straw beds daily, making sure there is always fresh straw available. We have added a supplement to their daily meds called Anxitane® (L-Theanine) Chewable Tablets, a green tea derivative, donated by the manufacturer that promotes this product as an all natural product to reduce stress related responses to environmental issues. The 4th issue relates to wolf care interaction, we make sure Grizzer gets the attention first as the dominant male of the pack. The retired wolves have had a good week, despite a renewed spot on Malik’s cheek, they are active, play bowing, eating both chicken and deer legs, and overall, not acting like wolves approaching eleven years of age.
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