Started brush training the pups today. As temperatures top the mid-40's, the tendency is to start seeing shedding shortly after. Grizzer took to the brushing well. He actually kept coming back to handlers to get more grooming.
The following was written by Michel Amacker, a Workin' for Wolves Participant – October 2004 Grizzer did very well in the holding pens on Saturday and Sundary during the various work projects. After their release, Grizzer and Maya investigated the pond with caution, but got braver as time went on and acted like the rocks were always there. On Sunday, some large rocks were moved to create cover spots for Maya. When Grizzer came back into the enclosure, he sniffed areas were rocks were placed and scent-rolled on some white pine branches. With very little effort, he jumped from one large rock to another. He has grown into a strong healthy wolf.
It's been a calm week with the Exhibit Pack. This time of year, the warmer weather, hormonal influences and lack of active rank order issues make for a quiet existence. The wolves have been investigating the exhibit with more motivation after several enclosure enrichment procedures and increased vegetation that draws in amphibians and a variety of moths, butterflys and dragonflies.
As you can see in this week's picture, Grizzer greets Malik with a T2 tail position. Even though he is submissive when greeting, he never loses a chance to chase Malik when a dominance issue occurs between the arctics. He was observed at the "What's for Dinner program" running along the enclosure, and playing in the pond with Shadow and Maya, After the program, he was sucessful in taking a deer leg that Maya was guarding.
The following logs were written by Wolf Watch participants Kelly Miller and Jessica Sollie, who spent the night at the Center observing the Exhibit Pack's behavior. Enclosure enrichments were given to the wolves to stimulate their sensory ability. This week's enrichment with frozen fish. Grizzer looked for the fish for just a short while. He would usually just follow Maya around and wait for her to get the food and eat her scraps. He was very standoffish to those of us observing and had no interest coming to the fence. He would whine when Shadow was laying near the fence. He also did some scent rolling after a bit. The next morning when they were howling, we noticed that his howl is starting to change into a deeper adult voice.
Grizzer has had some good aerobic activity chasing ravens. With the warm weather, we experience wolves with less than a normal appetite. This means that there is a lot of extra scraps within the enclosure. Where there's scraps, there are ravens. I didn't get a chance to clip the video, but I did watch him chase at least 10 ravens from the den area of the new habitat.
Grizzer has really gotten a lot of attention and has been very stimulated to invite chase, even though the pack mates are all on the other side of the fence. There's been many episodes of chasing behavior on camera, but we continue to film in order to capture the excitement we experience when we work with him. He's doing great, for a wolf managed alone. He did have a day of howling on Thursday. Oscar was off site for the day, and there seems to be a correlation to Oscar's absence and howling.
Since Grizzer's enclosure faces the wolf yard and the pups may interact with him through the fence, Grizzer will have a full blood profile as well. We also have some dental work for Grizzer, cleaning some plaque and determining the condition of one of his premolar's that's starting to lose some dentition. Grizzer has a good history of immobilization and we expect things will go smoothly. The temperatures will be in the 40's, warm enough to work and not too warm for a wolf to overheat.
Of all the wolves here, Grizzer had the most stimulus howling with the sled dogs (not sure how the sled dogs felt). Grizzer initiated several howls, had some directional whining and did more racing around the enclosure than he usually does. He was excited, jumping on the den, off the den, over the wolf care staff and back again. His initial howls were territorial, then he went into a higher pitched social rally. The sled dogs are only at the USFS office between trips, and as we are experiencing a warm spell, the ability to do trips into March may be compromised by weather. This excitable stimulus may be short-lived, but enjoyed by Grizzer.
The logs will all be the same this week. It has been an extremely busy week for the wolf curator between the job at the college and the Center. Wolf care is still done, but all other activities such as email, logs and reports are on the back burner. We had a relatively calm week except the return of the sled dogs created some stress for Shadow. He did some pacing, and in the warmer than average days, he got a bit overheated. He eventually settled down by mid-morning, and was fine the next day. This is the last trip for the dogs, and they will be moving back to their home turf by Wednesday. Aidan was less anxious and a bit more dominant, Denali got very playful, Grizzer howled, Malik ignored everything and Shadow paced. We are in the process of finalizing the Pup Care teams, and will be making decisions and sending notifications by the first week of March. We should return to a full set of logs next week.
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.