Today Grizz is 28 days old. During the Pup 101 Program, Grizz was taken out a few minutes early due to anxiety. At the 3 p.m.program, he was very calm and preoccupied with a piece of deer hide. During his noon feeding, he ate a 1/4 cup of weaning formula given in a bowl and was not interested in feeding from the bottle afterwards. The precaudal gland is evident in both Grizz and Groan. This appears as a darker, diamond-shaped patch of fur located about halfway down the tail. He continues to try to dominate both Groan and Nubee but is submissive with his handlers.
While staff has been observing some very mature dominance behavior from Grizzer, they also still see the pup tendencies in his behavior. He willingly submits to staff, and he spends time wrestling with Maya. In this week’s video, you will see Grizzer attempt to subtly take a possession from Maya. It starts by laying close by and ignoring her. But, when the opportunity is right, he rolls over and tries to lie on top of the possession. Maya’s usually quick enough to escape before she loses.
Today Grizz is 27 days old. First morning with the pups program started. Griz slept on the concrete floor and did not appear to be bothered. He was much more relaxed than in previous presentations. Grizz is also starting to show more dominance to both Nubee and Groan, but is still submissive to his handlers. Grizz has been feeding voraciously from the bottle and is still not eating very much weaning formula given in a bowl. He is gaining weight steadily and growing fast.
It's the start of the 25th anniversary celebration weekend, and the Youtube Posting will be delayed until Monday to show some of the weekend events. Grizzer did some fairly intense testing of Shadow on Thursday morning. It was preceded by some time spent in holding, when the wolves can get extremely excited. The upper windows of the Exhibit were washed, which requires all wolves to be locked off, and staff were prepping the wolf yard for the first Behind the Scenes programs of the summer. These changes to the wolves environment were enough to cause some tension, and redirection. It is very important to understand that wolf management requires a consistent and calm style, and when that changes, any underlying tension comes to the surface.
Grizzer has been receiving some increased dominance from Shadow, and some testing from Denali. The concern that we have is that Shadow may be overcompensating his dominance due to his joint stiffness, and Grizzer may redirect to Shadow if Denali continues to take advantage of him. Normally, Grizzer is very non-confrontational. His observations are more likely to show a calm wolf with a few bouts of chasing and wrestling, then more calmness. Managing wolf exhibits requires constant observations of all wolves, their normal behavioral patterns and any deviation from normal.
Grizzer is improving in social interactions. On the first few days after Shadow's retirement, he was more aloof, and seemed a bit anxious. In the last week, this has improved, and he is again socially interacting with Denali in wrestling behavior. Wolf care staff did two things that helped stimulate Grizzer. The first was the application of fly spray on the ground to stimulate scent-rolling. This was a management need to help apply fly repellent to the wolves coats, but it served to stimulate Grizzer who is obsessed with scent-rolling. The second activity to help Grizzer related to a dog pup. As many of you will recall, Grizzer is extremely social to pups. We had one of our Vermilion students bring their 3 month old dog pup to the outer gates and in the observation area. Grizzer was extremely excited, and was face to face through the windows with the pup (we would never risk a dog pups life by bringing them into a pack of wolves, it is even risky to introduce wolf pups). This worked, the following day, Grizzer was far more socially interacting, if we're lucky, the dog pup may have stimulated an increase in prolactin hormone, a naturally occuring nuturing hormone that cycles in summer.
We are 2 weeks post retirement and Grizzer is starting to become more interactive. Of all the wolves in the Exhibit Pack, Grizzer showed the most behavioral issues with Shadow's retirement. Since the 2008 pup introduction, we have observed Grizzer to be tolerant of pups, not forcing any conflict and letting the pups climb all over him. As those pups matured, he continued to avoid conflict, and maintained a social relationship. With the exception of the dominance he showed towards Malik, he's always been quick to give in, especially to Shadow's dominance. In the absence of Shadow's leadership, Grizzer appears to be responding with avoidance behavior when Maya, Denali or Aidan are in a dominant interaction. We interpret this as a lack of behavior towards assuming a leadership role, resulting in either Aidan or Denali becoming the next dominant male. The Center is re instituting a program called Wolf Watch. This program occurs the first Thursday of every month, and involves training program participants in data collection, and having the observers camp out in the auditorium for a night of observation. We hope to offer this program the first Thursday of every month, and be able to interpret the pack dynamics without the influence of wolf care staff interactions with the wolves.
While Grizzer is increasing social contact with the pack and staff, he has developed a new behavior that will make the wolf care staff more diligent in observations, management of the wolf yard and distractions for the pack. This new behavior relates to Aidan. It appears that when Grizzer is anxious from Denali testing, activity around the wolf yard, noise in retirement or Maya showing dominance, he is quick to redirect toward Aidan. This behavior makes Aidan extremely timid, and magnifies the weakness he portrays. This could just be a transitional phase for Grizzer, as it's only been 4 weeks, or this could be the behavior that Grizzer portrays until their is clear leadership in the male rank order. Of all the behaviors and wolves to watch, we will focus our first Wolf Watch program on the dynamics of Grizzer and probably Aidan.
The colder weather has increased the wolves diet. A full deer carcass doesn't last long between the four wolves. In this week's video, you see Grizzer and Maya sharing a deer hide. There doesn't seem to be much competition between these littermates, although there is the occassional wrestling match.
On Saturday, Danielle Solberg and her grandmother Barb, volunteered to do some pack observations to help interpret the current pack dynamics of the Exhibit Pack. These type of observations are valuable, as they help give a perspective that doesn't involve wolf care in the enclosure. Danielle did an excellent job taking notes and observed Grizzer still being aloof and spending time alone in the woods, but interacting with all pack members as the feeding approached. Grizzer does have a bad habit of getting excited prior to the feeding, biting on the chain at the gate and digging or rolling rocks in anticipation of the feeding. In an effort to learn more about the pack dynamics (post Shadow retirement), we are resurrecting a program called Wolf Watch, which occurs on the first Thursday of every month. Check out the Programs tab on the wolf center home page, Wolf Watch programs are posted under the Seminar tab.
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