This log written by Wolf Care Staff volunteer, Cameron Feaster. Grizzer has had a relaxing week. In the mornings, Grizzer is visited by an assortment of wolf care staff to greet him and allow him a social outlet. After his regular feedings of chicken, beaver, or deer, he often takes his meal to a straw bed in a sunny portion of his enclosure, and has a nice meal.
This entry was written by visiting Wolf Care Staff Volunteer, Cameron Feaster. With an early arrival of winter, we begin to see a great increase in activity from all of our resident ambassador wolves, both young and old. In this week’s youtube video, you can see Grizzer accurately demonstrate this, as he performs the ‘Grizzer 500’ after scent marking his new straw bed.
I would like to thank all of the members and donors who support our educational mission at the International Wolf Center. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and would like to report that all of the wolves are doing well. We have some great pack interactions as the winter begins and our wolf care staff are so honored to work with these incredible ambassador wolves.
Grizzer has had a calm week, with very little to report. We had a group of Vermilion Students at the Center on Friday night burning some piles, so Grizzer had a lot of stimulus and a lot of people to observe from the cover of darkness.
Grizzer had another opportunity to conduct the Grizzer 500 race earlier this week. We have an educator who is assisting with medication delivery through the fence and it became apparent that Grizzer really likes her. We always do what we can to give Grizzer extra treats, extra staff time and stimuli that makes him excited. When we introduce new staff, they start by using the scat bucket and collecting scat. Starting as young pups, we condition the wolves to avoid interacting with staff when they have tools, including the bucket. That means staff must be consistent and give no social interaction, no talking, no eye contact and no touching the wolf. The pups pick up on this quickly and as long as staff are consistent this avoidance of staff with tools is a behavior done by the wolves throughout their whole life. If you watch this week’s Youtube video, you will see Grizzer in a full run, but when he sees the staff with he scat bucket, he immediately stops. This is a great management tool when trying to introduce new staff.
Grizzer’s had some good stimulus lately. In order to drain the pond, it required the Exhibit Pack to be locked in the front of his enclosure while the pond was drained. Grizzer does get excited while they are in his space, but he does a lot of posturing and scent marking when he gets to return to the area.
Grizzer had a great session with Tina (the dog) on Wednesday night. Tina was getting brushed in the yard (as a dog, she sheds in an unusual pattern), every time Tina finished with another layer of hair, she would run to Grizzer with residual hair flying in the wind. Grizzer rolled over several times for her and even got a mouthful of the airborne hair. Grizzer has developed a level of trust with the handlers, and when things go on the yard, we work really hard to protect him from stressful activities. It’s nice to see him have such a relaxed time and be distracted by the hairy dog with no tail.
Grizzer’s been getting more receptive to visit’s from my grandson’s dog, Tina. Maybe I should reverse that, Tina is getting more receptive to hanging out in the wolf yard and spending time at the fence with Grizzer. Since Tina is more subordinate in behavior than Oscar, we have removed the safety panel which allows more efficient deliver of morning nutritional supplements and gives Grizzer a better view of the yard. Grizzer displayed a submissive role over towards Tina and has returned to some of the activity he displayed when Oscar lived her.
This will be the only posting this week due to the International Wolf Center Symposium in Duluth, Minnesota that starts on Thursday. There are still opportunities to register, check out the details at www.wolf.org.
Grizzer spends more time getting massages than any other wolf here. Without competition, he can sprawl out and make sure wolf care staff spend all of their time making him comfortable. This week’s Youtube footage of Grizzer is dominated by staff interaction. When we are in the enclosure, I don’t have any other choice, he gets what he wants.
Grizzer’s had so much stimulus from both the Retired and the Exhibit Pack using his space for a holding area during maintenance, a wild wolf trying to chew his way into the Retired Pack right behind Grizzer’s enclosure, a tree falling and doing some roof damage to his metal roof and the pack giving Aidan a hard time. All of these events keep Grizzer active and responding. If you watch the Youtube video when Aidan starts showing some rank order, you may hear a chain rattling in the background. The chain is from Grizzer getting excited and pawing at his gate. With Grizzer being in the middle of both packs, he seems to have twice the stimuli. I did also record one submissive roll over from Grizzer to my grandson’s dog Tina.
