Feeding program, Mackenzie took off with a deer leg, Lakota, Lucas, Shadow and Malik all shared the main carcass.
Dave Mech and Nancy Gibson were in Ely on Thursday October 5th, for a presentation to the US Forest Service. While in town, they spent time with the pack and fed the pups as scheduled for the Thursday night feeding. They had a great visit not only with the pups, but Dave Mech had great contact with Mackenzie, who can sometimes be rather reserved. This may be related to the status of her position as Alpha female which seems to have elevated since the pups introduction. Mackenzie has a significantly higher tail position in almost all behavioral interactions and her dominance over Lakota has increased as well. It will be interesting to monitor this heightened status as winter approaches. Even though these wolves are spayed and neutered, there are still heightened levels of aggression during the timing of the breeding season. This season could be interesting.
Mackenzie and Lucas are showing more classic pair bonding behavior as the alpha pair. Even though they are spayed and neutered, they still show a hormonal response during this time when wolves would normally breed (January-February). They have been observed sleeping close together, pawing each other and running along side one another with high tails, licking each others faces. The yearlings attempt to keep up, but they generally get rolled over on their back by the alphas and are left behind. The one noticeable issue for staff is that the yearlings are playing a lot more since they were placed on Chlomipramine. They seem to be less obsessed with dominating Lakota and more interested in participating in pack activities or play bouts. Shadow is frequently observed throwing bones into the air, only to have Malik take them and run. Lucas was even observed initiating a game of chase with the yearlings.
Daily routine of feeding Chlomipramine to yearlings, Vitamins to all wolves, Cosequin to Mackenzie (identified in log as CVC) continues. Vermilion students Damon Haan and Mark Baker assist with CVC. Damon and Mark watch Malik, Shadow and Lucas in pack holding area while Jen Westlund goes to top of hill to give Lakota her vitamins and do a daily physical check. After the yearlings and Lucas went back into the pen, they did not go see Lakota, but stayed near Mark and Damon.
CVC to all fed Lakota fresh venison today. Mackenzie is becoming more active in taking food from Lakota, so she may go into the pack holding area with Lucas and the yearlings. Curator, Lori Schmidt, has been reluctant to isolate Mackenzie, since she is a bit more intimidated with the holding area than the other wolves. As the alpha, staff needs to avoid putting Mackenzie in an intimidating position that the yearlings may perceive as a weakness. So far, Lori has been able to provide Lakota enough food without to much problem.
Thank you for all of your concerns for MacKenzie sent via email. The difficulty in managing wolves is the stress involved with more intensive medical care. To those of you who have had the honor of meeting MacKenzie, you know how hesitant she is about being restrained or made vulnerable in front of strangers. The stress of leaving the enclosure or being placed into a vehicle to go to the vet is not an option without drugging. At her age, drugging is risky, it is best if the vet comes here, and that has been our course of action. She is currently on a maintenance dose of anti-inflammatory that keeps her mobile and reduces her pain. The reality is, she is nearing 14 and we want to make her as comfortable as possible and not put her through unnecessary stress. She is a very dignified animal. Our concern must be for MacKenzie's physical health, but also her mental well-being during the course of treatment. This week's video show her mobile, enjoying a few bites of fresh snow (she has a heated water bowl, but likes to still bite snow), taking a bit of time to lay in her new straw bed, but content. The background noise you hear is the curator blowing snow, the first snow of the season meant a lot of work.
Staff are very pleased with the status of MacKenzie with a maintenance dose of anti-inflammatory. She is moving well, and as reported earlier in the week, willingly rolling over on her back for interaction with the handlers. In this week’s video, you see her checking out a balsam tree that came down. We decided to leave it the pen, as it creates cover for the wolves in the back of the enclosure.
Intern Kim Klosterman wrote: "On Sunday morning when Andrea (Lorek Strauss) and I gave Mackenzie her first dose of Cosequin, she was very slow to rise. Afterwards her back hips were really stiff, so much that she kept sitting down and inspecting her hips. Shadow was immediately there giving her a hard time, while Mac walked around slowly with tail tucked and ears back. But, she barked and held her own and eventually (after ~ 10 minutes) Shadow moved away. Shadow never made contact with Mackenzie, just circled her, and followed her around intimidating her." Curator's note: It is very common for lower ranking animals in the pack to watch the higher ranking wolves for a sign of weakness in hopes of gaining rank. This is a strong instinct motivated by survival in the wild that makes wolves in captivity a challenge. We started Mackenzie on Cosequin as a nutritional supplement in hopes of easing some of the stiffness in her joints. (Her April medical exam revealed a clean x-ray of her hips, so there's no specific problem, just the aches and pains of growing old.) It is not uncommon for wolves as well as dogs to begin to show signs of age at this time (Mac will be 9 in April). Actually, 9 years of age would be considered an old wolf in the wild. . We are using a variety of distractions for the yearlings to keep them from focusing on Mackenzie. It seems if the yearlings are bored, they are more inclined to focus on the weaknesses of the adults.
Intern Adrienne W. wrote: Mackenzie showed a lot of submissive behavior Sunday morning. Between 8 and 8:15 am, she had her tails so far between her legs it was to her stomach, Lakota style (Lakota is the omega – bottom ranking pack member). Both yearlings were close to her at that time and all wolves were concentrated between the den and the pond. Later that same morning, Jen (Westlund) and I tried to get Mac to come over to the holding pens for her Cosequin, and although we were both calling her, she was reluctant to come over. Probably since the yearlings were held there. Jen had to go over to the den area to give Mac her pill. Another observation was that the wolves had at least two longish howling sessions around this time lasting 5-10 minutes each.
MacKenzie seems back to normal. Whatever mysteriously caused her condition a few weeks, seems to have mysteriously disappeared. She had a good feeding on Thursday night and was observed several times by the remote cameras, carrying a deer leg throughout the enclosure on Friday.
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