With white coats, the arctic wolves may not absorb as much heat, but they still have the behavioral pattern of seeking shade and becoming more nocturnal in activity. In this photo, Axel finds a cool spot on the main greeting rock that is well protected by the adjacent tree cover.
So sorry for the extended delay in posting; Since our last post, we have transitioned out of winter and right past spring into some hot, humid weather. By the seasonal calendar, May is still considered spring, but with temperatures in the 80 degree range, the wolves can have challenges keeping cool. We are fortunate to have a pond and a pump system that circulates water through a UV filter system to help keep the pond relatively algae free during the heat. In this week’s image, Axel and Grayson investigate the flow of the upper pond. This photo clearly shows the oversized foot per leg ratio that is classic wolf.
Each week, I try to pick one of the many photos on the Explore.org Gallery pages. This week I have selected an image from Tina Warne. The photo shows Axel on the right with a slight food defensive face towards Grayson on the left. While it often appears that Grayson has to wait for dinner, we do monitor scats and see that he gets his fair share of food (even if it has to be a post feeding chicken breakfast). On Thursday night, staff fed 2 beaver to the Exhibit Pack. The Vermilion Community College Wolf Ethology class was on site learning the data collection techniques and software to begin their spring assessment of the dynamics between Axel and Grayson. This is a trial period for a new data collection app that we hope to adopt for the pup introduction. We will post data results from the students research during their final exam period in May.
For each log, I try to select a photo from the Explore.org Gallery that represents the weekly behavior of the Exhibit Pack. Thanks to “jdy4wildlife” for posting this image of Grayson resting near his deer carcass. Notice the outstretched paw that signals to the scavengers that he still has possession even though he is trying to nap. This past week has been our first real blast of winter weather, with a polar vortex delivering some 25-30 below zero air temperatures. Wolf Specialist Abby Keller provided some good details on wolf adaptations to cold climates.
With the Center being closed throughout the early winter due to COVID restrictions, Axel and Grayson seemed very interested in the return of visitors to the Center by late January. They positioned themselves at the windows, watching the activity as visitors made some face-to-face connections, especially those exuberant younger visitors. As the Center went back to the “What’s for Dinner” program, we switched from smaller, more frequent feedings to the larger deer torso feedings. This created some interesting rank-order behaviors between Axel and Grayson who have been posturing for some rank since Denali retired. Grayson seems to be increasing his confidence without Denali’s intimidating presence. With Grayson’s tendency for bonding, we are very interested to see how he interacts with the pups next summer.
This week’s Explore.org Gallery image is a photo of Axel and Grayson in a duel scent roll. Apparently, they killed a small mammal in the enclosure and spent a significant amount of time tossing it and scent rolling. We recently reviewed a publication entitled: Grey wolf may show signs of self-awareness with the sniff
test of self-recognition co-authored by Karen Davis from Wolf Park (originator of the Wolf Ethogram that we frequently use). We are definitely interested in learning the motivations of wolf behaviors.
In this preliminary study, wolves showed some signs of the ability to recognize themselves
through the “olfactory mirror” and exhibited some clues of mark-directed responses,
particularly scent-rolling, which may shed more light on this still unclear behavior
and represent a sort of olfactory equivalent to passing the original mirror test.
Since we established the partnership with Explore.org in 2020, we have definitely been enjoying the many images submitted by the viewers in their Gallery. I search the gallery to get an indication of the behaviors, feeding patterns, and overall dynamics of the Exhibit. This week’s photo shows the “Interspecific (between species)” interaction between a raven and Axel. I would like to thank Explore.org camera viewer “mashaka2020” for sharing this mirror moment between two social species.
We are still experiencing some warmer than average January Weather. Not only has it been stimulating wolves in an interesting way, but it has also been beautiful to photograph. You may have noticed some recent facebook posts by staff showing the “Hoarfrost” back drop of the trees in our Exhibit Pack.
According to the definition on Britannica.com
Hoarfrost, deposit of ice crystals on objects exposed to the free air, such as grass blades, tree branches, or leaves. It is formed by direct condensation of water vapour to ice at temperatures below freezing and occurs when air is brought to its frost point by cooling.
With these background images, the wolves have been providing many behaviors to interpret. Normally January is filled with dominance, but this warmer weather is bring out a more social, bonding behavior. There are many bouts of chase, resting in close proximity, nose to nose moments that are not part of our usual winter dynamics. Will this behavior continue? We will wait and see as a cold front is approaching and returning our winter norm temperatures back to zero and below. To find out how the winter dynamics will change, log in to our website and join us for the “Winter Dynamics” webinar on February 4th at 4 pm Central time or sign up for the entire Webinar Series of 14 webinars, with many including the dynamics of our 2021 pup adoption.
Photo by Tanya Roerick
While we had snow in early October, the post-holiday winter has been a pattern of limited snow and warmer than average conditions. Even though we still think it’s winter, the thick coat of these arctic wolves may make some of these mild days a bit too warm for much activity. We have been observing a lot of rest periods during the day when the wolves would normally be active, but like clockwork, they always seem to get up at 4 pm. Visitors to the Center’s webcam or Explore.org’s two Exhibit cams will catch the action of the day. Here are some examples from recent Explore.org gallery posts.
Thanks for all of your support this past year. We are grateful for the support of the Explore.org folks and their many, many images in the gallery of Axel and Grayson. As arctic subspecies, they definitely thrive in winter conditions.
Photo by Sherry Jokinen. Trouble Identifying Axel? Look for the longer, straighter muzzle
