After a hot humid day, Grizzer and Maya spent yesterday evening chasing each other. Grizzer stalked Maya, and pounced on her once or twice. Staff members have noticed that from the Exhibit Pack, he is often the one who instigates all the other wolves to play.
Grizzer has been a bit active with dominance towards Shadow and Malik lately. His video shows a dominance pinning of Maya with a head shake, then a slight harassment of Shadow. This is an indication of a more serious interaction as the head shake is associated with predatory behavior. Also, note Shadow’s tail posture is in a T-4 tucked position. Shadow’s confidence is decreasing, although Grizzer still doesn’t follow through with dominance like some adult wolves do. The hormone levels should reach their highest peak into February, then level off and decrease through March. There are several opportunities to learn about ritualized dominance display and the influence of body postures as a communication method.
Grizzer seemed more relaxed during the behind the scenes program. This may be due to the large meal he had yesterday. Grizzer grabbed two beaver and guarded them from Malik and Shadow. He growled at them when they attempted to get close to the beavers. So in today's program, he just lay down, but he was still alert towards the public's movements.
We want to thanks Andi Nelson for suggesting a commercial Mist that was available in a catalogue. When you manage wolves, you have to improvise, so we went to the hardware store and we designed a similar device, with a $10 budget! Here you can see Grizzer walking under the hose, staring at the shadow it proyects. Wolves are curious animals, but also skittish with new things, so you have to be patient and let them get use to them.
The Pups at One Year program held on 7-29 – 7-31 including enclosure enrichments to stimulate the wolves and enhance photography opportunities. The participants placed chicken legs throughout the enclosure for the wolves to scent and locate. In this week's photo, former Nanny and program participant Theresa Williams photographed Grizzer jumping for a chicken leg in the tree.
Grizzer has taken to the idea of being brushed to remove his dense undercoat. He's even pushed other wolves out of the way to get his turn. The warmer weather has calmed everyone and staff find a different environment in spring than in winter. Grizzer continues to harass the vegetation in the enclosure. The program participants enrolled in the Pups at One Year program will likely be assisting with tree planting and other stimulus projects to keep Grizzer occupied.
Typical to Northern Minnesota, the weather has once again turned to snow, wind and cold. Now I see why wolves don't shed their full undercoat until June. It's hard to believe that a few short weeks ago it was 80 degrees and the wolves were panting. I cleaned the pond and filled it, and Grizzer seemed to be the most help. He continues to entertain himself with pine needles pushed into the lower pond by the waterfall.
The wolves received an intensive medical examination today which involves immobilizing the pack. Grizzer had a smooth immobilization and was handled by Captive Wolf Management Participants, Kristy Raines (team leader), Michele Amacker and Wendi Moran. He was found to be in excellent health, the ear mite problem from last fall has cleared up and his ears look good. He weighed in at 93.5 lbs. That's quite a change from the 2.8 lb puppy we acquired on May 12th, 2004. Grizzer was one year of age on May 5th.
This is a sad time for everyone who knew Nyssa and cares about wolves, both captive and wild. The effects on the remaining wolves are being monitored, Grizzer, who was a common play companion to Nyssa, appears to be focusing his behavior on interactions with the arctics. The pack has been observed with limited play behavior since Wednesday, May 11th, with the first recorded interactions between Maya and Grizzer on Sunday afternoon. There has been much howling in the pack, and will likely continue as the dynamics of the group have been affected. In this week's photo, Grizzer is investigating a tree branch at the top of the Raven rocks (about 6 feet off the ground). Staff will be closely watching any signs of redirected aggression or abnormal behavior. For Grizzer, his investigation of vegetation, grabbing at branches and shredding them is very normal.
The following was written by Pup at One year program participant: Sandy Stoffel My favorite memory of Grizzer is when we started to wean him off the bottle; he got so mad and upset that he went to a corner of the cage and appeared to pout.
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.