Archive for: lakota

Sorry for the delay in the logs, Wolf Curator, Lori Schmidt was in Anchorage Alaska last week for the Wildlife Society National Meeting and general wolf care was the main priority in her absence. On the day before Lori left, Lakota appeared to have a developing lump on her right cheek. A call to the Center's veterinarian diagnosed an abscessed tooth. She was put on a 7 day course of antibiotics with a 3 day dose of deramax. She recovered quickly and is very active again, with the swelling decreasing within 3 days. At her age, it is risky to schedule a surgery to extract the tooth. Staff continue to monitor any irritation, or furthered swelling as this condition can reoccur.

Lakota is doing well, both her and MacKenzie have settled into a routine, and spend some time together. They are still enjoying the mid-week feedings of chicken and steak with weekend feedings of deer and/or beaver. Lakota is frequently on the denbox, with no stiffness as the cooler weather approaches. The boxes have been filled with straw, but as of today, there has been no interest in using the boxes.

Lakota is as active as ever, she certainly inherited the good joints of the litter. She's got an excited gait, when staff enter the enclosure or MacKenzie investigates something, she bounces over, then springs away, making a loop around the back side of the den boxes. As the webcams often portray, she sometimes includes the top of the boxes in the loop. In this week's photo, she takes advantage of the new straw bed we placed in the enclosure for MacKenzie.

With the Memorial Day holiday, all wolf logs will contain the same text content with different video and images. The most notable event this past week involved a bit of tension between Grizzer and Malik that escalated into a short, but noisy dominance display involving the entire Exhibit Pack. Staff had noticed during the "Workin for Wolves" weekend that Grizzer was stalking Malik, but Grizzer is a bit shy around strangers, so he didn't have too much action in front of the working group. As time went by, this tension was noticeably increasing, and on Thursday morning's wolf check, Grizzer became agitated with Malik and in an instant, forced Malik onto the ground. The entire pack was involved, with varying degrees of intensity, note Maya's hesitant stance. This was Grizzer's way of reasserting that he is now the #2 male on the Exhibit, taking over Malik's role this winter. This interaction is shown in Malik's video. In Grizzer's video, you will see another wolf communication to assert dominance, in a more passive manner. Grizzer is following Malik, causing Malik to be intimidated. When the male rank order has some strife, Maya gets a bit anxious. In her video clip, you will see her seek reassurance from Shadow, and toward the end of her clip, she actually climbs on the rocks to the wolf care staff to get out of the dominance mix. Shadow is watchful of the rank order issues between the #2 and #3 males, as Grizzer may try to increase rank farther by taking him on for the dominant role. But, in Shadow's clip, you do see Shadow with Maya doing a ride-up on him and Grizzer showing submissive ears. The Retired Pack is continuing to do well, as the weather warms, staff are making an extra effort to remove the excess undercoat of hair to help cool them. Lakota enjoys a brushing, Mac is not as enthusiastic. MacKenzie cools herself by finding a shady area in the enclosure or by panting.

Due to the active schedule with the ongoing Wolf Ethology class at the Center, all logs will be the same. Shadow continues to have some issues with groups behind the scenes, so the schedule has been modified for the class, with more observations from inside the observation area. Shadow seems to do much better with this. The weather’s been hot and humid this week, causing the wolves to reduce their activity levels significantly. The biting flies are out and all wolves have been treated with Biospot for fly control on their ears. Grizzer and Maya have completed shedding their dense undercoat, with the exception of some loose hair on their necks and tails. Shadow and Malik, as arctic subspecies are a bit delayed in the shedding and are about midway through the process. Although the Retired Pack members are Great Plains subspecies, they are also delayed in the shedding process, possibly due to their age. Lakota has a growth on her face that has been increasing in size. The Veterinarian has chosen to wait until cooler temperatures before anesthetizing her and removing the growth. He has determined that it is benign, but it may continue to grow. Staff will be watching this carefully and have been cleaning it daily.