Malik continues to receive antibiotics for the tooth abscess, and if there is no noticeable improvement, a short chemical immobilization, a trip to the vet and a tooth extraction may be in his future. Lakota, one of our former retired pack, actually had two abscesses in her later years, both healed with a good dose of antibiotics, so there is hope for Malik. Regardless of how it looks, it has no impact on his eating, activity or breath. If it wasn't for the swelling and discoloration, you wouldn't even know he had an issue. Wolves are incredibly resilient.
Malik is really starting to put on winter weight, likely in response to taking some of Shadow's daily feeding. Shadow is still a very temperamental eater, which means we sometimes need to feed Malik with Shadow, as Shadow is more stimulated to eat when he competes with Malik. The only new stimulus for the pack was the draining of the pond, the weather is getting colder now, and we don't want the older animals taking a dip and having some stiff joints. There was another dead raven in the enclosure on Monday, based on the amount of focus Malik places on the raven's when they fly over, he is probably the one who catches them.
Malik's abscessed tooth is healing well. We did extend his antibiotics and increased his dose as the first week of treatment didn't have the response we wanted. We've observed this situation with the 1993 litter when they were in retirement, and we are confident that we will be able to overcome this situation without a tooth extraction. Malik and Shadow are very compatible in retirement, sharing den space without issue and they tend to follow each other throughout the enclosure.
The Curator hauled a load of rocks into the retired enclosure to cover some chain link fence and ground wire. Malik spent a lot of time sniffing the rocks and marking each as is customary for anything new in the enclosure. Malik sure does get excited when the Exhibit Pack is active, often running the fenceline and looking up towards the top. We're not sure if he thinks he could clear the fence, but he is certainly spry enough to do it.
One of the commonly asked questions is how we feed the wolves. We feed on a once a week schedule allowing the wolves to gorge and satiate with meat, then cache the rest for later. In today's photo, you see Malik giving direct eye contact when I came to close to him eating a cache. These are great behaviors that accompany a natural diet of large carcass feedings.
It's interesting that the topic of Aidan and Denali's logs is the fact that Denali takes advantage of Aidan when Aidan's anxious. The exact same behavior happened in retirement on Wednesday. I was trying to get some fly ointment on the tips of Shadow's ears and I momentarily restrained him. This resulted in a whine of protest from Shadow and within seconds, Malik was doing a ride-up behavior with a high tail. He continues to test Shadow today (3 days later), and Shadow is holding his ground. This is why we have resorted to only using spray for these two wolves. Every other wolf here allows us to put on fly ointment, but we start with using Vaseline on their ears when they're very young. Shadow and Malik didn't have that conditioning, and tend to avoid even approaching when they see the container.
Malik has finally started laying in straw beds. To give the pack plenty of resting spots during the colder weather, straw is used throughout the facility. The morning sun doesn't reach the top of the dens until later in the day, so straw was placed in the lower portions of the enclosure during the cold spell and to help place Grizzer in a sunny position to melt some of the dried blood on his pelage. Malik initially curled up in a ball in the snow, of course looking cold. It made staff wonder about straw placement, if Malik didn't feel comfortable in any of the choices for beds. Finally, after placing 10 different beds, Malik chose one in front of the greeting rock, and seems to be more comfortable. This job of caring for wolves goes far beyond the physical, it's important to recognize the psychological needs of the wolves as well.
When working with a wolf pack in captivity, there's always going to be one wolf on the bottom. The rank order isn't complete unless there's a top and a bottom, and in this case, Malik has that rank. Certainly not because he has that personality, like Lakota, but because of the dynamics of the other social relationships. Malik protests on a daily basis with growls, and chatter that can be a constant source of noise. Even when Grizzer is not interacting, Malik will run up, growl at Grizzer, then run away. Grizzer is actually quite tolerant, but when the behavior goes on for several minutes, Grizzer will usually take pursuit and follow. It's hard to interpret if Malik does this because of his personality trait and that makes him a target or if being a target makes him display this behavior. We do know, that if he was calmer, Grizzer wouldn't follow him as much.
The wolf logs will contain the same text for each wolf, as snow conditions again dominate the staff's work load. The most noticeable snow issue was a recent clearing of the snow from the Center's roof. With over 2 feet of snow on the roof, and the predicted forecast of rain adding to the weight of the snow, the decision was made to shovel all the snow from the roof, which lands directly into the wolf enclosure. To avoid giving the wolves free access to the roof, the snow had to be blown out of the front of the enclosure, resulting in a large bank in the front of the exhibit, that is at least 8 feet from the roof line. You may have noticed increased activity in front of the pond cam, as the wolves have been very actively climbing and digging in the snow bank. The wolves have also been observed sliding down the snow bank, and pushing each other off the top of the hill. It is a great vantage point and wolves do enjoy the view from the top of the hill.
This past week, the curator was out of town attending conferences for the HP grant and the Society of American Foresters. While we manage with a style of multiple wolf care staff, the change in routine can have an impact on the wolves. To distract the pack from this change, items are given to provide them a behavioral outlet. Last week, a bison hide that was donated from a hunter was given to the pack on Monday. This provided a significant amount of behavior including tug of war, guarding behavior, active submission and dominance and overall excitement. Malik became very possessive of the hide, and earned a few confused looks from Grizzer. Staff observed Malik sleeping on the hide on several occasions. The full video clip of the bison hide will be included with the YouTube video this week.
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.