Malik has been actively keeping Grizzer in line, while keeping an eye out for Shadow. The male role will be interesting to watch this winter. In this week's photo, Grizzer gives Malik a lip curl in response to the dominance from Malik and Maya, while Shadow watches the action.
Malik still seems to want to test Shadow, but his look of intimidation is more noticeable. He gets easily startled if Shadow is behind him and responds with more hackles than Shadow does. Lately, Grizzer has been focusing on Malik a bit more as well. But, overall, the males seem to be getting along fine.
It was a new thing to see Malik being harassed by Shadow and Grizzer. This was the first time that Grizzer bitted Malik. Winter is going to be an interesting time to see the dominance fights, and the possible making of the final hierarchy in the exhibit pack. After the dominance interaction, Maya approached Malik in a submissive way.
Malik has become obsessed with a dog toy that squeeks. Whenever he sees it, he watches it closely following the every move of the toy. It's a good tool for getting him to come to the front of the enclosure during the day, but staff need to be careful on where they place the toy. Malik's legs can stretch 2 feet under the gate, anything within reach ends up in the enclosure. The arctics have been having a bit of a struggle with the flys and continue to resist fly ointment applications. Staff tried a new longer lasting treatment today called Spot On. The vets say it should last several weeks if we can get it on them. Malik took his treatment from Joyce Riveroll today, but Shadow is too weary of anything in our hands. As usual, Grizzer and Maya sat well for their fly ointment treatment. Thank you Nannies for all the early handling of their ears when they were puppies.
Malik has been showing more testing behavior towards Shadow. He's also been more dominant with Grizzer and Maya. The response from Shadow has been mixed, sometimes he intervenes and blocks Malik from the yearlings, othertimes he physically rides up on Malik and instigates a dominance display. Maya is usually submissive to Malik, while Grizzer may attempt to ride-up during the interaction. This winter will be interesting for the male role of the Exhibit Pack.
Written by Pups at One Year program participant: Carol Mucha This week, there were a couple of special groups visiting the wolf center-the Girl Scouts and a Pups at One Year group. Malik took took the extra attention with his usual calm, posing on the greeting rock with the experience of a seasoned ambassador wolf. He and his packmates explored all of the new enclousure improvements-fresh pine shavings and cedar chips in the den and new birch logs- with curiosity, and enjoyed the addition of minnows to their pond. Malik enjoyed a special treat of watermelon this weekend. He was able to eat his share of deer Saturday night, unrestricted as he used to be by Nyssa.
Malik and Shadow continue to display some issues concerning status. Normally, springtime behavior is less aggressive than the dominance issues common in winter. Hormonally, the male wolves are driven by a heightened level of testosterone in winter, with a lower level in spring. In the 5 years that I've worked with Malik and Shadow (they turned 5 on May 8th), this is the longest (into the Spring) we've observed some intense interactions. The posturing of bodies, the averting of gazes and the positioning of tails indicates that there's no clear acceptance of the top order here. There are many things that can impact it. Shadow is timid around strangers and a Behind the Scenes visit that can leave Shadow with a tucked tail, will often result in Malik in high tail. Staff are very cognitive of these specialized programs and the behavior of the wolves after a session. Shadow seems to have the most social behavior with Grizzer and Maya, while Malik may not share in the intensity of the greetings. The relationships between wolves often helps dictate the status of individuals. The Center is offering some specialized programs called "Wolf Watchers", where program participants spend an overnight observation period in the auditorium watching the dynamics of the pack. These observations will be more important than ever as the pack transitions their relationships and rank orders.
Shadow and Maya pinned Grizzer to the ground and after a period of time, let Grizzer up and he proceeded to run after Malik. When this type of behavior occurs, Grizzer tends to redirect to Malik. This observation is very telling to the rank order. . As you can see by Malik’s photo, he isn’t taking it lightly. Grizzer appears to be the second ranking male and Malik seems to be the lowest member of the pack. Fortunately for Malik, there’s not a focus of the whole pack on him, but just redirections from Grizzer. But this doesn’t mean he won’t try to take advantage of any of the pack mates when he gets a chance. Malik’s video shows that he can still wander the enclosure without constant dominance.
Malik seems to have learned how to avoid Grizzer's testing. He is watchful of the body language of Grizzer and positions himself in a place to confront him or at the very least avoid him. Grizzer's testing is not constant, he tends to spend most of his time interacting with Maya and Shadow, but when Malik senses Grizzer has a stronger motivation to show dominance, he is alert to the activity. In this week's photo and video, Malik uses a threat display to guard the deer carcass from Grizzer, but ends up sharing with Maya.
The wolf care staff has been very busy this week with the ethology class, hence the delay in updating the wolf logs. Malik continues to remain relaxed with the program participants in the wolf yard. When blocks of ice with various items frozen into it were given to the wolves, Malik had possession of the one with meat scraps in it. When he left it, Maya came and took it over. Shadow was very protective while Maya had the block of ice and kept himself in between Maya & Malik. When Malik attempted to get the ice, Shadow chased him away.
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.