Denali and Boltz will likely be deciding in the next year their place in the rank order. One of them must be ahead of the other. As time goes by Aidan will help decide how this rank will be.
With Luna and Boltz maturing and coming into their third year this is the most challenging. As year three is approaching they are maturing into adult wolves and will be gaining more confidence as time goes on.
Denali will have to work hard to get the second place over Boltz. They will figure it out.
Whenever these bouts of dominance occur in the male hierarchy at the International Wolf Center Aidan will often redirect to his brother Denali, who is quick to roll and submit to the dominant male. During our most recent ‘What’s for Dinner?’ program, Denali was seen giving a lip curl to Boltz while defending a carcass. Any wolf who possesses a carcass has the right to defend it, though Denali rarely follows through with the threat display. Boltz and Denali sharing a meal is not an uncommon sight.
With the rising hormones of fall, Denali appears to be content with where he lies within the pack hierarchy. He is quick to submit to Aidan, and is tolerant of the testing from Boltz. It’s hard to predict what role Denali will play when the day comes that Boltz may grow into the dominant male rank, siblings often form alliances quite well, and often reinforce one another’s rank. Until then however, Denali still remains the 2nd ranking male in this hierarchy.
With fall in the air, hormones are on the rise, and dominance interactions are becoming more intense by the day. Denali is quick to dodge these interactions as much as possible, and doesn’t appear to have any desire to challenge his brother Aidan for the dominant position. Often when the others are busy with such interactions, Denali finds his way to wolf care staff to solicit greetings, or to some food that’s being ignored by the others.
Denali has remained relatively unchanged by the stresses of the week. We did see one incident of posturing after Aidan returned to the pack, but it did not last. Aidan is quick to remind Denali of his rank within the pack. Denali remains close to the pups, often engaging them in play behavior, and in general accompanying them on their investigations within the enclosure.
Boltz may try to catch Denali, but with those long legs, he can turn on the speed and put some distance in between his lower ranking packmate. Denali will probably be the most affected if Boltz starts testing, I am not sure how Denali will take being number 3 male in the rank order. Of course, as long as he gets his deer deer carcasses, Denali seems content.
Grizzer likes his massages from wolf care staff and he doesn’t like to end a session. His relaxed look on his face tells the tale, as far as Grizzer is concerned, that’s the reason we exist. It’s hard to believe he’s 10 years old, his actions resemble a two year old somedays, especially if staff are working on other tasks and ignoring him.
Face-wiping is a common behavior seen in wolves, and it involved the wolf wiping their muzzle, and portions of their face, on an object to remove debris. This is often done in grass, on tree trunks, or in the snow, and it serves to clean a wolf’s face quite well after a meal. In this week’s photo, Denali demonstrates the messiness that comes with feeding off of a beaver carcass.
Wolf Care Staff captured this photo of Denali displaying an inhibited bite on Luna. If you look carefully, Denali’s mouth is open wide and he has half of Luna’s body in his mouth. Inhibited means that the wolf restricts the pressure on the bite, which is a good thing considering Denali’s size and strength.
Denali has a full undercoat and shows limited signs of blowing his coat like Grizzer. We do brush it, but it just doesn’t want to let loose. He may be the smartest of us all as the constant barrage of bugs can’t find their way to Denali’s underbelly, but the hot humid days are hard. It’s not that Denali doesn’t want to be brushed. He stands on the rock like he’s spending a day at the groomer and would probably even tolerate having his toenails clipped (haven’t tried it because wolves dig so much caching that they don’t need it). Eventually, we will see some movement, but for now, you can tell Denali apart because he is the only wolf in full winter pelage.
