Denali may know something about climate that eludes the rest of us. He has retained most of his winter undercoat and while we brush him every day, his pelage is thick and ready for winter. I know we just experienced the summer solstice and it’s a downhill slide towards winter, but really… there will be a summer in Ely, Minnesota, so lose the hair. Of course, he has less bug bites than everyone else, so maybe he does know something that eludes us.
When a wolf yawns, it it tired? This question is important as we train the next generation of pup care staff. When we talk about wolf behavior, we try to identify behaviors that indicate a captive wolf might be experiencing stress. We ask people who are participating in pup care or wolf observation programs to be diligent in their observations, not only observing the behavior, but observing the situation and stimuli that motivated the behavior to occur. When a wolf yawns once, it may be tired. When a wolf yawns repetitively, it may be a signal of stress. Other behavioral indicators may be rapid eye movement or blinking, snapping at the air, excessive licking and the obvious, redirected aggression. In this photo, we happened to catch Denali in a yawn as he rested in the sun, but Aidan, that’s a different story.
Denali carries a beaver away from the other wolves and has no problem lifting the 30 lb frozen carcass with the grip of his 4 canine teeth and strong neck muscles. These adaptions make it possible for wolves to hunt prey much larger than themselves. Even though I have worked with captive wolves for nearly 30 years, their physical adaptations are still impressive to watch. Wolf care staff weighed all the wolves this morning before starting a new dose of Ivermectin. Denali’s weight remains steady between 134 and 138 lbs.
| 8/14/2013 | Denali | 138.6 |
| 6/13/2014 | Denali | 134.5 lb |
| 5/1/2015 | Denali | 136.69 |
When Aidan gets a bit frustrated, he tends to dominate Denali (Aidan on Denali’s back)… but that doesn’t seem to bother Denali as much as when Luna is in his personal space. There seems to be about a one-foot buffer around Denali’s face that will get the annoyed threat display response if you enter his space. Fortunately, Denali has a good demeanor and within minutes of this facial expression, he will do a playbow and tail wag to instigate more interaction.
Wolf physiology is made to thrive in winter, right down to the toes. In this week’s photo, Denali demonstrates the spread of the wolf’s paw, allowing them more surface area on their step. This can help their stability, but also their ability to reduce the amount they will sink into the snow. Their toes have partial interdigital webbing, a segment of skin that can stretch between toes to further this surface area.
One could see Denali at the bottom of the male rank order this week, as he’s been much of the focus for the pack’s dominance displays. Most of these interactions are social, or ritualized dominance, we see that in Denali’s tail posture, often still wagging, or untucked during the activity. Nevertheless, Denali seems more content resting in the upper portion of the enclosure with his meals over the past few days.
Wolf Logs written by Wolf Watch participants Steve Houglum and Marcia Mummau.
Denali is feeling better! During the Friday evening Wolf Watch program, two small deer legs were given to the pack. Denali possessed both legs and displayed a number of lip curls when Luna attempted to take possession of one of the legs. If you read Luna’s log, you will see that her subtle posturing won her one of the legs, but Denali managed to keep the other. We are just happy to report that he is feeling so much better and is willing to possess and defend food.
The Wolf Watch program is generally offered on the first Friday of each month, allowing participants to join wolf care staff as they observe the pack interactions and record any behavioral data that helps determine pack dynamics.
Sorry for the lengthy delay, it took about a week for Denali to return back to his usual active self and another week for us to make sure everyone else was healthy. Based on his blood work and symptoms, we believe it was a viral infection that caused his discomfort and lethargic behavior. When dealing with pack animals, we are always worried about spread to the remaining pack members, but so far, the rest of the pack had no issues. In this week’s photo, we see the ear posture showing a defensive threat over a piece of venison. Attitude toward food possessions is another way we can tell Denali is feeling better. It may be hard to believe, but while he was sick, Denali wouldn’t even take a meatball. During his first few days of illness, any medical treatment he needed had to be delivered with a subcutaneous injection. We know a wolf doesn’t feel well when they are easy to hand inject and they allow a blood draw.
One thing about Denali is that he is extremely alert, especially when food resources are leaving the freezer or entering the enclosure. When training staff about wolf behavior, we focus on three main features:
1. How are they holding their ears
2. How are they holding their tail
3. Where are they focusing their eyes.
These three observations will give a good insight into a wolves attitude and Denali’s typical attitude is “Where’s the meat?”
Today, we aren’t seeing as much focus as we normally do from Denali. He seems to be a bit lethargic and has lost his appetite. For a wolf like Denali, that’s definitely a sign that warrants a call to the Vet clinic. We gathered a fecal sample, have run through the symptoms and our veterinarian has developed a course of treatment to get him back on track.
Denali shows us an excellent snowplow in this week’s photo, taken by wolf watch participant Steven Houglum. This behavior is commonly done to clean off excess blood or other grit on the wolf’s muzzle, but it has also been seen in a more ‘playful’ context.
Learn more about the behavior of our captive wolves, and wolves around the world through our…
webinars: https://wolf.org/events/seminars/
And Lecture Series: https://wolf.org/events/lecture-series/
