The wolf logs will all be the same today, we would like to thank all of the wolf care supporters this past year. From the significant donations to the Water in the Lab fund to the vitamins and nutritional supplements, straw, squeaky toys, pigs ears, blueberries, tools, jump drives, web cams and many more items that are donated to the lab each year, we are so grateful there are so many people who help support the Retired and Exhibit Pack. There are too many names to mention, but you know who you are. We can always count on you when the wolves are in need. We are happy to report that all is well on this New Years Day, 2008. The Exhibit Pack received 2 frozen fish from a recent fishing trip, one caught by Assistant Wolf Curator, Donna Prichard and one caught by Lori Schmidt, Wolf Curator. Grizzer and Maya enjoyed rolling on them. The retired wolves are doing well, excited about the thawing of two deer legs for a mid-week feeding. The Nanny applications are posted on the website, they can be found on the Programs tab, look in Wolf Seminars or Learning Vacations – Northern Minnesota. We did institute a prerequisite program for the Nanny program this year, we did this based on some experiences that we had in 2004. Wolf pups are not dog pups, and we want to make sure nannies have to skills knowledge and abilities to assist in the socialization process. This is an historic time for the International Wolf Center, 2008 will mark the first time the Center has had three age structures in a pack and we want to make sure the best interest of the pups and the pack in mind as we move forward. If you have questions about the Nanny program, please email the curator directly at curator@wolf.org
The winter continues to be an active time for the Exhibit Pack. While some ritualized dominance struggles are part of the natural order of the wolf pack, the compatibility of the pack is very good. The wolves have strong social interactions, and even though Grizzer will make Malik a target for redirected aggression, the pack spends time together sleeping, feeding and interacting. There’s no one individual that stays on the fringe of activity, which can happen if there’s a lot of tension. Grizzer remains submissive to Shadow and some of the earlier testing seems to have decreased. He has been submissively rolling over for wolf care staff. It is important that external stresses be minimized in the wolf yard at this time of the year, and the staff has made a decision to reduce the amount of Behind the Scenes programs during the winter. The Behind the Scenes programs will continue in May, after the cycle of these dominance hormones decreases. As a reminder, the Nanny and Behavioral Team applications are on the website under the Programs tab… the deadline is February 1st.
The water and sewer work is completed in the enclosure and wolf yard. The wolves actually did very well with the construction work, and they seemed to really like the contractors. During the initial construction outside of the enclosure, the wolves remained on the Exhibit but were lightly sedated to take the edge off of their anxiety. On Wednesday the 17th, the wolves were locked off the Exhibit in the pack holding area and given a heavier sedative. All wolves went into holding except Maya… she was given a sedative and allowed to watch the construction from inside the enclosure. Grizzer’s larger body size and young vibrant condition made it a challenge to estimate drug dosage. He had a higher dose than any of the pack, yet showed the least signs of effect. There’s been very little redirected aggression observed, and despite some following behavior and chatter between Grizzer and Malik, the pack seems to be cohesive. The video clip for the Exhibit pack shows a howling bout that occurred on Saturday morning. Grizzer attempts to get on the rock with the dominant pair, but is rebuffed. He then spends time shadowing Malik.
Grizzer – Grizzer has a more mature focus to his behavior Grizzer’s intensity as an adult wolf is noticeable, especially when Malik is near, but he doesn’t show as much excitability as we expected. His mere size and presence is enough to get Malik in an aggressive defensive state, which leads to Grizzer to raise his tail in a show of dominance and follow Malik which makes him more defensive. This type of posturing is classic wolf behavior, and certainly anyone observing the pack has an opportunity to learn the subtle communication of a pack animal.
This week’s video shows the two sides of Grizzer. In Shadow’s video, you will see Grizzer in full submissive posture towards Shadow, but in Grizzer’s and Malik’s video, you will see an excitable young male showing his status. Malik’s response to Grizzer is usually a growling threat display, which excites Grizzer to chase him. The key to managing dominance behavior is in keeping the lower ranking wolves calm. If Malik feels more relaxed, rather than anxious and threatening, Grizzer is less likely to see this as a weakness. This is easier said than done, but the dynamics of the handling is important. It is key that the wolf care staff interact with the dominant animals first, reinforcing their status and making them feel confident and calm. This is the wolf rank order rule, but it does contradict the human emotion side of wolf care, where humans would like to support the lowest ranking wolf.
Grizzer is doing well, he’s certainly a very big part of this pack, and his interactions vary with each individual wolf. He still intimidates Malik with a mere glance, but Malik seems to hold his own with threat postures and a keen sense of awareness of Grizzer’s attitude. In Grizzer’s video this week, you will see a pack rally. Grizzer starts the group activity while submitting to wolf care staff, Shadow joins Grizzer for a roll on his back and the pack rallies with tails wagging. We received a recent email from a webcam watcher concerned about Grizzer crouching behind the rock, and possibly being ostracized in the pack, as his video shows, this is not the case. We do believe Grizzer was crouching behind the rocks to stalk some ravens, and a dead raven on the den site may support that theory.
The wolves are doing well, all appear to be healthy and active. Grizzer's matured significantly in the last few months. Wolf care staff haven't had any of the earlier grabbing, unpredictable behavior consistent with a pup or a yearling. There's still a lot of social and dominance behavior between Grizzer and Maya, very typical of this age structure.
One notable behavior that started last week was the increase in associative behavior between Maya and Shadow. It is typical that the dominant pair goes through a pair bonding ritual during the height of the breeding season, and even with spayed and neutered wolves, this behavior is still present. How does this influence Grizzer? There are two factors that create a change in Grizzer, the first is that Shadow gains confidence with the support he receives from Maya, making him more assertive over Grizzer. The second factor, is that Maya’s pair bonding behavior is stimulated by a hormone rush. In the absence of a second female, she asserts her added hormonal dominance focus on her littermate, Grizzer. When Maya gets excited, she pins Grizzer to the ground and Shadow and Malik are right there to get some status over Grizzer. Which explains the photo for this week, Grizzer showing less status by doing a standing urination rather than a raised leg urination (RLU). In the wild, it’s usually only the dominant male that does and RLU since marking behavior has more important role of defending territory, but in captivity, all of our males will present an RLU dependent upon their confidence at any given time. In Grizzer’s video, you still see him following Malik, but as Malik’s behavior demonstrates, it’s at a much calmer rate
Written by Pups at One Year Program Participant: Deena Arntzen Grizzer continues to exhibit his fine disposition in his mellowness and participation in games with his packmates. He always enjoys a good brushing, jumping on Lori (the curator) for more each time. At the "What's For Dinner" program, he ate well and pulled some intestines from the deer, happily trotting over with his prize.
The Center's veterinarian was on site for a vet visit. This is different than a vet check, where the animals are immobilized and blood is draw. A vet visit is primarily looking at medical records, the Vet Care Plan, an observation of pack dynamics and individual wolf observations. The last time we had a vet check with immobilization was prior to the arrival of the 2008 pups. Grizzer had a bit of an issue during that check, and still retains a bit of negative association with the Vet. Negative conditioning of wolves can be more intense than dogs.
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.