Grizzer has a few exciting weeks ahead. A portion of Grizzer's enclosure is know as the Pack Holding Area. This is an area where the pups would traditionally spend a portion of the summer. Starting next week, for a few hours a day, we will move Grizzer to his new habitat and let the pups interact in the pack holding area, which will be the initial introduction site. We've already done this a few times with Oscar, getting his scent in the enclosure will help the pups during their first visit. Grizzer watches from the new habitat, then spends a significant amount of time overmarking any urinations left by the visitor. It's good stimulus and keeps him active.
The logs will be all the same for this week. We did some concrete work in the Exhibit Pack on Wednesday which took precedence over all filming. The back of the den site in the Exhibit Pack had some old logs as a cover to prevent snow or rain from getting into the den. These logs were starting to rot and with Luna still being vulnerable and extremely active near the den, we decided to concrete a 3 foot by 6 foot overhang at the back of the den site. You may have noticed the densite webcam showing the fencing used to keep the wolves out. They were extremely good about the fencing and other than Denali on circling the fence on the first night, they didn’t dig or push on the fence. This allowed the concrete to dry thoroughly before the form and fence were removed on Friday. Grizzer, Shadow and Malik have had a quiet week and we will have more to report next week.
We pressure washed Grizzer's pond earlier this week and he has been spending a lot of time wading and pawing water. He's starting to transition to the back habitat and den site, rather than spending time near the front of the yard. He has a much better view of pack activity in the Exhibit from the high vantage point on the den. We are in the discussion stages on web streaming cameras for Grizzer's enclosure as well as the Exhibit pack, and hope to get something on the web soon. I know many of you miss seeing him on a daily basis, but he's doing well. I watched him get a full body massage from one of the staff today, without any other canid competition, he could lay their for hours with the staff.
This week's Youtube shows Grizzer in one of his more relaxed poses. Of all the wolves here, he has more opportunity for full body massages since there are no other wolves to vie for attention. While he is shy and doesn't show this side to visitors to the wolf yard, I hope the Youtube video shows how peaceful life can be for him with the wolf care staff.
Grizzer continues to use the den for a high vantage point. Some gravel was hauled in today after a summer of digging and scraping reduced most of the cushioning on the den. Grizzer has a full winter coat, but we noticed he as a scrape on the top of his head, most likely caused by Grizzer's tendency to crawl through brush and drag logs and trees around. We're treating it with an antibiotic cream, otherwise, eveything looks good.
I was posed a question in an email about the possibility of Grizzer rejoining the Exhibit Pack. This was asked after my posting last week about Denali and Aidan not showing any aggressive response towards Grizzer when they were in holding. This is not doubt a scenario that I contemplated, but I have to weigh the risk assessment of wintertime dominance of these younger animals. I see Luna and Boltz in pretty active dominance interactions with each other and Luna's intense threat displays towards all the adults when food is involved. If Grizzer were to show the least amount of intimidation or tucked tail response, he could be on the bottom ranking of 4 active young wolves. Grizzer is not focusing on the pack and continues to remain very calm with staff interactions. I firmly believe it's in his best interest to not change his living situation or put him through aggressive interactions that may result him transitioning back alone again. As we look at Grizzer, we see a wolf who is clearly showing his age, and as we look at the Exhibit Pack, we see a vibrant pack of wolves that have a higher level of activity that will only increase as winter approaches.
We are making great strides towards completing Grizzer's habitat. 3.5 yards of concrete was poured to form the den walls for his new den. It will look similar to Shadow and Malik, but a bit narrower. We will be pouring concrete slabs by the gates on Monday, we need to haul rock over groundwire, put some rocks for steps on the den, build a roof over the vestibule and finish some line rail pipes and he will be ready to use the new space. With other programming obligations taking a priority, the estimated time of completion is July 20th. We look forward to that day.
Grizzer's habitat work is complete, there are only a few visual barriers that need to be added, but the plan is to allow him access to that space on Monday morning during wolf care. We will video tape his behavior and post a Youtube video that day. He had a great day today with temperatures cool and no work on the enclosure. He was very relaxed, but during the night, he must have scraped his head on some branches, he re-opened his wound. He willingly allows staff to apply ointment, so we will be doing multiple applications. It does take time for that new skin to heal and become hardy enough to withstand a wolf scent rolling or rubbing against trees.
Grizzer has taken to sunbathing lately. He has most of his undercoat shed, and now feels comfortable to rest in the sun. He is 8 years old, about the time joint stiffness starts.
Due to the Planning for Pups weekend, the excessive heat and the ongoing work on Grizzer’s habitat, this week’s logs will contain the same content for each wolf. Aidan was weighed during Planning for Pups and he's lost a few pounds, down to 120 lbs probably due to construction. Denali was weighed and has increased by a pound, up to 125 lbs. The first thing we need to do is introduce the newest member of the wolf care team. Oscar, a collie mix dog, was recently adopted from the Range Regional Animal Rescue facility in Hibbing Minnesota. We decided to look for a dog that could help provide some social stimulus to Grizzer (through the fence, not as a pack mate) as well as serve for a role model for the 2012 pups. Grizzer is very social, rubbing up against the fence when Oscar approaches, of course, Oscar is always on a leash and under direct supervision, Grizzer is still a wolf. We discovered Oscar and his perpetual grin on his website photo stimulated our application for adoption. Aidan is excitedly whining towards Oscar and Oscar has also helped some of Aidan’s anxiety going through the medical pen gates. Shadow and Malik are stimulated as well, allowing staff to liberally coat fly ointment spray on their heads and ears as they watch Oscar. This is a bonus, as they are usually hard to treat. Oscar has a large extended family, with many staff offering to take him for walks and social time with staff off-site, but Oscar’s home is the Center, and each night, he settles into a sleeping bag as staff put on a CD of music, set the air conditioning to 72 degrees and allow him a good night’s sleep in the safety of the wolf lab before he begins another day of playing in the wolf yard. Oscar’s photo is posted on Malik’s site, the arctics were too hot to come out of the shade for a photo this week, so we used a winter photo of Shadow, reminding us of cooler weather and Oscar did a stand in for Malik.
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