Archive for: luna

The Exhibit Pack is scheduled for an immobilization and complete medical exam on Monday April 17th, but Luna and Grizzer will wait a few weeks until they lose some undercoat and risk less heat stress from the warmer weather and a trip to the Vet clinic.  So, how does the Exhibit Pack immobilization affect Luna?  The Exhibit Pack will be moved into the Retired Area for the initial immobilization, so Luna’s caches have to go.  As you may have read in the past, Luna is very food possessive, so this needed to be done with Luna waiting less than patiently in the Pack Holding Area.  Wolf care staff filled 2 scat pails with hides and bones to reduce the risk for the pack.  Luna will be able to build her cache again, but a summer cache is never as attractive as a winter cache.

Staff continue to do body work on Luna to help ease her stiffness and pain of her right rear leg during this winter season.  As she nears 5 years of age, we know this work will be a life-long commitment.  As we work to ease her physical issues, our decision to unite her with Grizzer has gone a long way in solving her social challenges.  Luna and Grizzer were introduced to each other in November of last year and most of that time was spent co-existing with food defense as their main interaction.  As the seasonal hormones became more prevalent, Luna started displaying more social engagement.  Initially, her idea of social engagement was grabbing Grizzer by the scruff of the neck.  When we first witnessed this, staff intervened to make sure that Grizzer was a willing participant.  After we stopped the interaction, he went around us, displayed a foreleg stab to Luna, scraped the straw bed and did a play bow to Luna;  Definitely the behaviors of a willing participant and apparently Luna’s idea of pair bonding.   

This weeks log written by Kim Wheeler, Executive Director, Red Wolf Coalition, Inc.  During my visit to the Center, I had the chance to spend some time with Luna.  Luna was very social with wolf care staff this week and continues to enjoy the body work that helps her to feel good.  If you watch the web cams, you have the opportunity to see Luna and Grizzer in some bouts of play.  I had the chance to witness her good mood when she decided to play and throw her meds in the air before eating them.  Luna still has some food possession issues and can often be seen lounging on a deer leg.  Wolf care staff has seen an increase in the number of play bouts between Luna and Grizzer.  Luna and Grizzer have 3 dens to use in retirement.  The other night I witnessed Grizzer on top of the east den and Luna inside.  Not sure if who picked the sleeping arrangements, but it is good to see them sharing space. 

Staff are working with Luna to improve her social skills, but the reality is that Grizzer is the best companion to help Luna develop a better social relationship with fellow pack mates.  Grizzer is tolerant, yet will not back down when confronted.   Food possession can still be confrontational, but we have made significant strides and can now feed Grizzer in the presence of Luna.   Early in the introduction phase, we needed to separate the two, ensuring that Grizzer could eat in peace.  Now, we don’t separate, although we always have 2 staff feeding at the same time to avoid competition.  We have noticed an increase in social behavior between Luna and Grizzer, especially on the security cameras.  We can tell when Luna is in the mood to interact, she starts by tossing items in the air, then does a scrape across the ground, lowering her front legs into a playbow before springing away and inviting Grizzer to chase.  If you recall, Grizzer is known for displaying chase behavior, even when he lived alone, so having someone to chase or to be chased is stimulating.  It’s also great exercise for Luna who needs to stay on the slim side to avoid stress on her hip joint. 

Since we made the decision to continue the pup socialization into the Exhibit Pack without Luna, we have been assessing her physical condition and behavioral interactions.  The Luna we saw in the Exhibit Pack was one of dominance, intense possession and assertive behavior and somewhat unpredictable and unstable energy that met with a lot of redirected aggression.  This is not the personality of Luna that we see when we manage her alone.  She is calm, rarely shows the snapping defensive dominance  and welcomes the staff’s individual attention, especially after receiving training on body work that made her more active and improved her physical activity.  We have discussed this with our Veterinarian and are cognitive of the potential influence of her early nutritional deficiencies and the influence it may have had on her physical and mental development, possibly causing her to be food-motivated to the point of obsession.  In addition, she may have been proactive in dominance as a defensive behavior to compensate for her physical weaknesses or in a pain response to the activities of a physically active Exhibit Pack.  We were aware of these behaviors, regardless of the reason, we adopted Luna and we will always do what we can to meet her needs.  The list of needs includes social needs for both her and Grizzer.  We spent nearly three months managing Luna alone and taking things slowly to get to know her trigger points both physically and behaviorally.  The good thing about Luna is she is always willing to communicate what she doesn’t like.  It was no surprise that when we recently integrated her with Grizzer, we saw a return of some of the food possession that was characteristic of the “Exhibit Pack Luna”.   Fortunately, Grizzer has displayed a tolerance that allows us to increase their social contact while we try to determine the most appropriate way to feed without triggering this intense possession behavior.  We will keep you posted on their progress, but as I write this and watch Grayson and Axel running, jumping and wrestling each other to the ground (with the other pack members are in close pursuit), I believe Luna is in the right place to meet her physical and behavioral needs.  I noticed a comment on the Youtube logs about our management decision about Luna.  I don’t want to mistake the idea that the Exhibit Pack’s calm energy as lazy.  Calm energy is the sign of a cohesive pack.  They are active and far from lazy.  Luna’s issues brings unstable energy and obsessive behavior that can be viewed as weak and a potential target.  We need to understand each individual wolf and do what’s best for each and every pack member and meet their social needs in a safe and stable environment.