Luna- Striking Contrast with the Fall Leaves

What can I say about Luna.  If you watch the Youtube, you will see her continuing to show her status over everyone (yes, even Aidan) as she matures into adulthood.  The contrast of the dark pelage against the fall leaves is beautiful and while fall only last for a short time on the calendar, our memories of this time of the year are long.  The wolves are in their full pelage, with the long permanent guard hairs thickened by the dense undercoat that will keep these wolves warm during the long Northern Minnesota winter.

Luna – Focusing on Scavengers from Above

Luna has a strong predatory drive which stimulates her stalking and ambushing behaviors.  She can be an indiscriminate stalker, going after Boltz, Denali or Aidan, but lately, she has turned her focus to the scavengers from above, namely, ravens.  As the fall and winter approaches, there will be more interactions between Luna, who is extremely food possessive and the many scavengers who frequent the Exhibit Pack territory.  Lately, Luna’s also been chasing her fellow pack mates off of her food possessions.  During last week’s “What’s for Dinner program”, she gathered all 4 beaver in a pile, ate about 10 lbs of meat, then slept on the rest.  Staff had to draw the wolves off and redistribute the beaver to get the other wolves a chance to eat (and that wasn’t until 3 pm on Sunday).   Today, when I came in for Wolf Care, Luna had killed and was possessing a raven.  Speaking of Scavenger’s from above, we are offering a program that not only investigates the relationship of ravens to our captive wolves, but includes a field visit to wild wolf territory to learn about ravens, eagles and vultures as they scavenge on wild wolf kills.  For more details, follow this link to learn about the Scavengers take Flight program. 

Luna – Obnoxious Submission

Obnoxious submission is a behavior, often from a subordinate wolf, that attempts to get a more dominant wolf to interact or reinforce the rank order. This behavior often includes whining, biting, pawing at, or even bumping the other wolf, and generally getting into their face about their display. Needless to say, this behavior can get quite old quickly. Aidan will tolerate these behaviors for a while, but when it gets to be too much, he often puts an end to it by rolling Luna, or retreating to the upper portion of the enclosure.

It’s hard to say why Luna submits in such a way, but submitting still seems to be a new thing to her, so there’s bound to be a few (or more) awkward attempts.

Luna Sporting a New Doo…

Luna’s new doo is due to the burrs she has collected in her fur. They are mainly around her head and neck area.
During the summer many invasive species of plants begin to grow in the enclosure. They are brought in by bird droppings, straw and equipment that is brought into the enclosure for a project.
Because of this we are very selective in the straw we purchase and limit the number of projects in the enclosure. Every year we cut and clear the invasive plants, but inevitably new ones are brought in each year.
At this time it seems that Luna has the most burrs in her fur compared to the rest of the pack. She must like the places where the burrs are. They collect in her neck area where her fur is thick and course.

Luna – Food Possession at its Finest

During our most recent ‘What’s for Dinner?’ program, Alpha members and wolf care staff witnessed as Luna successfully guarded a deer carcass from the rest of the pack for an entire night. Program participants watched some feeding behavior from the pack before Luna took possession of it, and proceeded to sleep on it for the night. Wolf care staff were eventually able to distract her in the morning in order to allow the rest of the pack to eat their fill.

Luna – Small but Deadly

Though our wolves are all spayed and neutered, it is important to remember that hormonal fluctuations still occur in these animals. Luna displayed this quite well this past week, when she went through a good bout of dominance displays over several days. We try to keep Luna well fed to reduce the intensity behind these displays, but a full belly can only do so much to quell the coming hormones of the winter mating season.

Luna – Working on this Rank Order Thing

Luna has more or less returned to her regular self, often initiating many of the dominance displays we see within the enclosure. We have seen some new things however. In the recent dominance displays, she has been much more willing to roll over for Aidan. Granted, she’s still often the one initiating these disputes, but there seems to be a few submissive bones in her now and then. Speaking of bones, as we mentioned in previous logs, Luna is back to normal levels regarding her nutrition and vitamin D. Last week she performed her first Modified Raised Leg Urination (MRLU), on her injured leg even. This behavior is typical of a dominant female, but we haven’t seen Luna perform it until recently.

Luna – A Supportive Dominant Female?

Redirection is a common behavior we see in Luna, often getting into the other wolves’ faces when possessing something, or simply when she appears to be in a dominating mood. Aidan typically deals with a lot of this redirection, but since his reintroduction after the examination, staff have noticed a slight decline in these outbursts. As I type this I can see her blocking Aidan from Denali in a small dominance sequence on our security cameras.

In the past we have seen wolves reinforce another pack member’s status, especially as a dominant wolf. Maya was quite famous for this behavior of dominating other pack members who would test Shadow or Grizzer in the pack. It could be a similar display we’re seeing here with Luna, reinforcing Aidan’s rank as the dominant male. It’s not certain whether this behavior will continue into the winter, or if we are interpreting this behavior correctly. Science has not, and may never be able to see into the minds of animals, we can only interpret the behaviors we see.

Luna – In the Bushes

Soon, the summer season will be a distant memory and the fall leaves will turn.  The contrast between Luna in the fall colors is striking, but even more striking is the tendency of the younger wolves (Boltz and Luna) to ambush birds as they make a stop in the enclosure before they finish their migration south.  For some, they don’t make it, for others, their skills of flight keeps them alive another day.  Luna seems to have a very strong predatory drive.  This might be why she has a tendency to watch the TV near the auditorium window.  Luna provided some good behaviors during the recent wolf watch, tossing deer hides, attempting to distract Aidan so she could take his deer leg.  She even showed a pairbonding moment with Aidan.  We have it on film, so there’s no denying that Luna has the ability to be part of a socially bonding dominant pair.

Luna – Active and Sturdy

There are few things that can stop Luna when she decides she wants to guard food, or begin a chase, or in general roughhouse with another wolf. In this week’s photo you can see Luna leaping away from Denali during one of these playful sessions. She’s standing with her weight completely on her back legs, her back right leg being the one she had injured as a pup. As we mentioned last week, her Vitamin D levels are finally in a normal range, and she certainly shows it. Now and then we still see joint aches, but overall, Luna has not been slowed down by her condition.