You may have noticed that we are experiencing some technical difficulty with the webcams. We hope to have them repaired this week. We appreciate your patience and support for the Ambassador wolves at the Center. The Nanny Application deadline has passed. Now we will begin to coordinate teams and make selections. We plan to have the award letters mailed by February 15th. The wolves are doing well, and have fared the recent cold snap without issues.
Written by Workin' For Wolves participants Tina and Ed Stimpson: This weekend, participants placed rocks and logs around the pond in the Exhibit Pack enclosure. Grizzer was very interested in the new things that were placed in the enclosure. This week's video shows Grizzer investigating a moose carcass that was fed to the wolves during Saturday night's What's For Dinner program.
Grizzer is again returning to a calm personality over the summer, but he does get excited about feedings. His obsession includes chain biting, log chewing and rock rolling as he waits for staff to wheel the food into the enclosure. To reduce his pre-feeding anxiety, wolf care staff are now instructed to wait inside the building and not enter the lab until the education program staff are ready for feeding. This plan was implemented for the last two feedings, and has made a difference in Grizzer's pre-feeding stress.
Grizzer has some interesting video footage this week. He continues to wrestle with the pups as if he was still a pup himself. He clearly focuses on Aidan for his muzzle bites, and doesn't do much dominance over Denali. He is observed sitting near Malik, with no real focus on Malik, unless Malik does a grab bite, or foreleg stab. Once Malik initiates some type of dominance, Grizzer responds with a direct eye stare. Malik is fortunate that Grizzer is a calm, tolerant wolf.
Written by James and Peggy Peregrine: Grizzer continues to weigh the most. The picture shows him enjoying a Cornish game hen as part of an enclosure enrichment program. His recent weight is 123.5 pounds, a gain of 2.3 pounds. On the video clip, you can see that Grizzer continues to enjoy playing with the yearlings. It concludes with Aidan being pinned by Grizzer. Grizzer also continues to chase Malik to maintain his second ranking male status.
Grizzer has been very docile lately, while he has some chasing behavior towards Malik (mainly when Malik growls at him, or there's a separation with the holding pen), most of the time, Grizzer is calm and spends time with the yearlings. Grizzer is still clearly submissive to Shadow without any indication of even a thought of testing. His photo this week shows a second ranking male that knows when to defer to the dominant male. Late last week, Shadow and Grizzer were sleeping together on the densite.
Staff have really noticed Grizzer's docile behavior lately. At first we thought it was just the response to the heat that he was more lethargic, but as the temperatures return to a normal Minnesota morning (upper 50's), he is still very docile. Maya has been extremely dominant with him lately, but he does nothing to return the behavior. Grizzer is showing more shyness towards changes in the enclosure. The new den in retirement is still an issue, although video this week shows him at least stretching to sniff it.
We are happy to report that Grizzer remains calm as ever, and there are very few dominance issues between he and Malik, unless Malik starts it (which he still does…) Grizzer is still receiving an increasing amount of dominance from Shadow, this may be Shadow reacting to an aging body, needing to keep the dominance rank order under control to avoid any physical challenges. Grizzer continues to be obsessed about the process of feeding, if there's a wheelbarrow of thawing carcasses, he either pulls the chain at the gate, or chews a log. What's odd, is that when the food is brought in, he's not aggressively hungry, just seems to display the anxiety towards the routine of feeding. One note to all wolf log readers, we are experiencing some difficulty with video editing software. The curator has purchased a new computer and an upgrade of software, but it may not be arriving for a few days. Please be patient, we know the importance of the video, and will solve it before the next YouTube is due on September 1st. In the meantime, a podcast is being produced today, discussing the behavioral observations of the summer Ethology and Pups at One Year participants.
As fall approaches, we are starting to see an increase in dominance and social interaction. The cooler weather is very stimulating. Another stimulus occurred on Sunday night. A large White Pine branch was blown off in a windstorm and landed on top of the sprinkler hose. The rest as they say, is history, so is the sprinkler hose. The wolves must have tugged on the accessible hose and pulled it apart. The two ends were hanging on the fence and the other end on the tree, but the remaining pieces were picked up in on Monday morning’s wolf check. There were several large pieces, and some smaller pieces with teeth marks, but it doesn’t appear that the hose was consumed, although I’m sure there was quite the tug-of-war displaying going. Grizzer attempted to tug at pieces when the wolf care staff cleaned up on Monday, but fortunately, they also ate a deer carcass on Sunday night, so he was too full to be any problem. In this week’s video, you see Grizzer panting after a chase around the den, as he stops to rest on top of the den.
Written by program participant Jennifer Ekroos: Grizzer is into challenging and testing the artics every chance he can. He displays immature behavior for a grown up wolf. He seems to like attention on him and will take the necessrary steps to get it. He is holding his status so far! It is going to be a busy winter for Grizzer as he tries to gain hierarchy over Shadow.
The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future.