Lakota continues to shed her fur, the help of daily brushing from the wolf care staff. This is one of the duties of the wolf care staff during the summer months. She did well with the introduction of new wolf care staff member, Bryn Fadum. Visitors often inquire how staff members become wolf handlers at the center. This is a long and timely acclimation process which, at first, involves being adjacent to the wolf enclosure then gradually being introduced, in short periods of time, inside the retired enclosure. New wolf care staff members work with the retired wolves first, as they are more tolerant of new handlers than the wolves in the exhibit pack. If all goes well, they will then progress to doing wolf care with the Exhibit pack. This is a process which takes many months and is dependent upon many variables, such as the interactions between handler and wolf, the comfort/confidence level of the handler, etc. Safety is always first and foremost when training new wolf care staff.
Written by Planning for Pups participants, Cathy Jents, Andi Nelsen, Laura Walters: During the Planning for Pups program, Lakota was noted to be spending more time in the den box, but during wolf care checks, she readily greeted staff. The retired pack has not started to shed their winter coat which has been a benefit in preventing insect bites, but a hinderance in keeping cool with recent high humidity and increased temperatures. The increased heat may have affected her appetite as half of the beaver was left in the morning. Compared to the Working for Wolves weekend, both Lakota and Mackenzie appeared relax and comfortable.
Lakota is doing well, she continues to climb on the den boxes for a better view of the exhibit pack and of the construction that's started another season across the road. As I write this, all retired wolves are catching some sun in their den boxes. Similar behavior is going on in the wild. Last week, during a mid-day telemetry flight, the group saw a pack of wolves from the air, all bedded down in the sun.
Lakota had a great pose for a photo today as she avoided overheating during the warmest part of the day. This time of the year is especially difficult as spring time temperatures can near 70 degrees F, but the full winter coat of a wolf remains. Wolves don't have sweat glands covering their body like humans, the only cooling mechanism they possess is through panting to evaporate heat, or remaining inactive during the warmest parts of the day. The wolves have switched to the inactive behavior.
Lakota spent most of today's wolf check plucking the deer hide from the road-kill deer that was fed on Friday. These wolves still have a good appetite and digestive system even as they near 13 years of age (April 28th, is their official birthday, although they could have been born anytime between the 24th and 28th, because the den is left undisturbed for the first week of the pups lives)… So, let's just call it a celebration of their birth week.
Wolves in the wild or in captivity tend to like higher vantage points to watch the activities surrounding their pack. Wolves in the wild may use densites with rock outcroppings or dug dens in hillsides to be on the lookout for threats to their densite. In captivity, specifically the Retired Pack, the den boxes serve this purpose. Stimuli such as hides, meat, or bones are placed on the den boxes to peak the wolves interest. Although, Lakota is the only Retired Wolf able to climb on top of the boxes, all are interested in the stimuli. In this week's photo, Lakota is checking out another enrichment project.
This week, all the wolves will have the same log text, although the photos will be different. We conducted an enclosure enrichment project, where a variety of unusual food scraps such as hamburger patties, frozen meat balls, fish and a few other food items were scattered throughout the enclosure. The wolves had a variety of responses to the items. Grizzer ran around and ate everything he could find, Maya scent marked, Shadow scent rolled, Malik investigated every spot with a high tail and excitability, Lucas food guarded, MacKenzie actually caught a burger in midair, and Lakota cached what she could take from Lucas. This type of stimulus creates high activity, a chance to use their sense of smell, and overall curiosity. Today was an overcast, cooler day, perfect for this type of high end stimulus.
The retired wolves completely consumed 5 beaver carcasses over the weekend, probably with a bit of help from the ravens. When wolf care staff did the enclosure check today, there was very little evidence of the beaver or the parts that the wolves don't comsume, such as the stomachs, intestines and skulls. This means the wolves are bound to be a bit sleepy after a healthy meal. In the wild, when biologists fly over wolf packs, it's not uncommon to see them bedded around a kill site, sometimes for as much as 18 – 24 hours.
Lakota is doing well, we made it through a Thanksgiving weekend without any problems. Last year at Thanksgiving, Lakota was diagnosed with Ehrlichia and was sick for nearly a month. You wouldn't know by looking at her, nor would you guess that the wolf racing around the pen was going to be 13 years old.
Sorry for the lack of logs over the past week. The curator was at a State Wildlife Society meeting. It was a great meeting and one of the most important messages from this meeting is the need to preserve contiguous tracts of habitat for species. As the human population grows and land development occurs, we need to always plan for the greenspaces that keep wildlife populations viable. Even in a captive facility, we have a need to manage for vegetation and quality habitat. This weeks photos of Grizzer and Maya prove why this is a challenge, but the Workin' for Wolves programs and the Adults at Two Years programs that are offered this summer, will aid in that endeavor. So, in the interest of getting photos up on the log, all the text will be the same. For each log, all wolves are healthy and during the curators absence, they were in the capable hands of wolf care staff Jen Westlund, Matt Fetterer, Jess Edberg, Andrea Lorek Strauss and Laurie Fella.
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.