Sleeping Close

We have started placing straw in all densites and in the front of the Exhibit for Luna to have a comfortable spot to rest. Aidan also seems to appreciate the straw and this week’s Youtube shows them both resting together (that is, after Luna stopped biting Aidan in the neck). Sleeping distance is one of those behaviors that we monitor that may indicate pair bonding between individuals. Luna still wrestles and jaw spars with Boltz as a pup mate, but she is often sitting or resting near Aidan. Literature from wild wolves indicates this sleeping distance continues to get closer as the natural breeding season occurs. All wolves are spayed and neutered here to reduce reproduction, but they still pair bond.

The Star

Luna is the dominant player in this week’s Youtube video. It’s not that I wanted to do a feature film on Luna, it’s just that she is the most active when I film. Her level of awareness on activities surrounding the enclosure seems to be much greater than the other wolves. Her predatory drive is strong and there are several clips of her dominating two deer legs. She seems to have adapted the role of being a dominant female.

Size Doesn’t Matter

Since Luna’s August medical exam, we’ve increased some supplements in her diet and have noticed a significant gloss feel and look to her winter coat. She’s always had a striking appearance, but her continued consumption of twice a day vitamin d supplements and the addition of the Science Diet JD food seems to really agree with her. She continues to have some moments when the ability to be higher ranking seems to be her entire focus. She does have a way to make Denali whine, which only stimulates her more. For Denali’s sake, we know how to distract Luna. Luna likes to guard and posses food, and even if it’s a small piece of chicken, her ability to stand tall and defend, seems to keep her from proving that size doesn’t matter in the world of captive wolf rank hierarchy.

Pair Bonding?

We saw some slight indication of pair bonding with Aidan, but it was on Luna’s terms. In this week’s Youtube, Luna approaches Aidan while Aidan is submitting to staff. She does a modified play bow and some social grooming around his neck. Usually Aidan gets up when Luna approaches, but he must have noticed the subtle change in her behavior and he stayed in a subordinate posture while she interacted. Luna’s also been using a rock pile to give herself some height.

Healthy Coat

You may notice Luna’s putting on a bit of weight in the last few weeks. We want to keep her trim for her joint issues, but we would like a bit more muscle and body fat before winter. She was enjoying the addition of the joint health dog food, but she has become disinterested in the food. We continue to try a variety of items to stimulate her to have a good diet, and based on the feel of her winter coat, something must be working. She has a very smooth, soft coat. In this week’s video, we also demonstrate her ability to camouflage with the rocks in the enclosure. Her limp seems to be improving, although I believe we will see some return to soreness when the colder weather returns. She is so active in this exhibit between dominating Denali to chasing migratory birds, she is constantly moving. We are meeting with contractors to develop a heated slab which can be thermostatically controlled, the problem is, how will Aidan deal with more work in the enclosure. I may have to pack a bag and stay for a few days to get through this project, but anything we can do to help Luna is worth the effort.

Visitor

The logs this week are all the same. It’s been a busy week. We started with the discovery of some damage to an outside security fence behind the Retired Enclosure. It appears a wild wolf attempted to get into the secondary security fence behind the retired enclosure. There were a significant number of boards torn from the fencing with a lot of teeth marks. Surveillance video shows that it likely occurred on Sunday morning, although we don’t have a camera pointing directly at this fence, Shadow showed some tension and agitation. We had a group of students from Vermilion Community College volunteer with some invasive species removal. This is critical as the plants that they were pulling harden off with hundreds of burrs that get stuck in the wolves coats. Unfortunately, Aidan seemed to have the most stress about the work project. He was agitated while he was in holding, then after the students left and Aidan was released, he proceeded to have some fear avoidance behavior throughout the weekend. This created some interest from the other wolves that saw the dominant pack leader showing some weakness. We impose a lot of limits on activity in the wolf yard as winter approaches, but the removal of the invasive species is critical work that saves a lot of wolf frustration as staff try to pull burrs from their coat.

Accommodating Diets

We have always known that Luna is different and she will have special needs throughout her life. In the latest blood work, her vitamin D levels were not as good as we have had in the past, so we are trying a new plan. We need Luna to eat a well rounded, vitamin filled meal every day. This is completely different the the normal wolf diet of gorging with stomach receptors allowing them to eat 20% of their body weight in one sitting. Luna, likes to do that and will obviously be a pack feeder on the weekly carcass, but we need to address some special dietary needs for Luna and not have so much excess food for Aidan and the boys. This requires some changes. We needed to redesign a concrete pad at the gate to allow for multiple wolves to linger while Luna is getting her morning meal. There had been rocks in this gate location and we want to make sure that Luna has a smooth surface for interactions and feeding. Secondly, we need to make sure we havef 2 wolf care staff for morning meds to distract the other wolves while Luna gets her special diet. We only started a week ago and we already notice her building some body fat and muscle as we approach the winter season.

Vitamin D

Luna started some additional vitamin D supplements and is taking an additional feeding every morning of a canned food designed specifically for joint health. We are looking at every aspect of supplement and treatment to make sure she stays active and healthy as we approach this winter. It’s been our experience that the winters between a wolves first and 2nd years are the most challenging. Luna, at the top of the rank order as the dominant female, will likely be involved in most activity. In addition, given Luna’s love of food, she has even more chances of physical interactions. Although, she is very good at possessing things. As I write this, she is sleeping under the eaves with last night’s deer carcass and not allowing any other wolf in close range.

No New News

The logs are all the same this week. As the curator, I work full time during the summer months and when I return back to school, my hours are reduced to part time status of 20 hours a week. Friday was my first day back, so the Friday routine of Youtube and log postings was affected. I hope to return to the Friday schedule as I get settled into a routine, but the 20 hours are dedicated to wolf care, and combined with other wolf care staff, the wolves won’t notice a change in schedule. As far as the wolves, we have had a very calm, socially active week. It’s also been over 80 degrees, which might have an influence on behavior. I will be back to posting individual logs next week.

Gaining

Luna put on a few more pounds this week and we are always discussing nutrition to maximize her growth. We took a blood sample last week that revealed some more work is needed with vitamin levels for Luna and we are actively working on supplements. Unfortunately, Luna has to be willing to take them, and that is not the case. As you watch video clips of Luna, you may see that strength is not an issue, she seems to be able to pull all 138 lbs of Denali off his feet. We don’t have weights for Maya at this age; unfortunately, we didn’t acclimate the pack to scales like we have done for this group of Exhibit Pack members. It seems every litter we raise, we improve on the core management issues. But, Maya was weighed as a yearling as 79 lbs and by the time she was a 4-year old wolf, she weighed 93.5 lbs. We hope we can meet the same goal for Luna.