The logs will be the same this week. We had snow on Monday that required a lot of effort to gain access to all the gates, water containers and dens. Thanks to Danielle and Linda for helping in that Monday morning check. We also had to redistribute straw beds for all the enclosures, a task that can only be appreciated during the spring Working for Wolves program when we have to remove all that straw. We are very pleased that Shadow and Malik are back to their usual invite chase behaviors and both have fully recovered from the gastrointestinal virus that occurred a few weeks ago. Grizzer is more social than ever and staff continue to have relaxing checks on a daily basis. Most of the extreme sub-zero weather is behind us and even if we do have a cold night, the days warm up quickly. Rank order traits are starting to emerge in the Exhibit Pack with Luna showing Denali that she will jaw spar despite his over-towering height advantage. Fortunately for Luna, Aidan watches from and pins Denali if things get a little intense. Spring fever starts kicking in for staff and wolves alike as the warm days of March seem to stimulate some strong social behavior (at least for the wolves).
We have observed some very compatible resting behavior between Malik and Shadow, with them sleeping comfortably both on top of the den and inside the den. The straw has a significant amount of depth to the layers on the den, and it might work in the wolves favor to insulate the ice for a while keeping them cool on a warm spring day. I did acquire 5 roadkill so all wolves go back to a larger carcass feeding in the next week, this will be a good stimulus for Shadow and even more things for Malik to possess.
Someone recently asked me if I had a favorite wolf. Certainly some people may think it's hard not to think of some individuals with a greater concern because of their individual needs, but the reality is, every wolf is different and they all have some unique characteristic to make them special. So, I thought I would dedicate this week's wolf logs to those unique characteristics. Malik's characteristic is being an opportunist. Yes, all wolves are described as opportunistic predators, but Malik seems to excel. His behaviors are not just restricted to interactions with Shadow, but wolf care staff have to be on guard around Malik even though he will be 13 years old in a few months.
We haven't had a lot of extra resources to provide the retired pack with a full deer carcass in a while (don't worry, we have plenty of meat for them, just not the fun of tugging on a deer), so we decided to let them have a deer torso on Saturday night. Malik who tends to be more food dominant really seemed to enjoy this treat and the extra volume of food left enough for both wolves to satiate themselves. By Monday, they consumed the 50 lb torso including the vertebrae. There's some good video footage on Youtube this week of Malik gnawing on the vertebrae with no trouble. As a reminder ,this is the wolf that had an infected premolar removed a few years ago, even though these two will be 13 years of age in May, they have great teeth.
With the webcam on retirement, people may notice the behavioral differences between Malik and Shadow. Malik is more nervous and may be up and traveling more than Shadow. Malik may also be more food possessive and if there is a wolf howling, it's likely to be Shadow on the top of the den. Malik, as a lower ranking pack member, may be howling from behind some protective vegetation.
For a 13 year old wolf, Malik is extremely quick. He once again managed to take the sponge I use for cleaning the water containers. Of course, this has become such a repeated activity for him, just the mere view of the sponge creates some excitable behavior. We always get the sponge back, usually with a bribe of some meat. It's actually enjoyable to see 13 year old wolves get excited about something.
This is the first week that we've noticed a return to some of the stand off behaviors between the arctics. This means that Shadow approaches to do a chin rest and Malik resists and continues to turn to face off Shadow. When we see this behavior, it's a pretty good indication that we are having some hormonal stimulus. The good thing is that Malik still averts Shadow's direct eye contact. When Malik starts to return eye contact, it can get pretty noisy in retirement. These two twelve year old wolves certainly have a lot of spunk and good interactions.
When we came in for wolf care this morning, we knew something was different in retirement. Grizzer was posturing towards the retired enclosure with a t-2 tail showing heightened intensity. When we went in Shadow greeted, but we watched Malik do some T-2 and T-1 tail posturing. Shadow responded with some dominance which we filmed for the Youtube video, but we also noticed some coughing. It may have been some dusty straw or we may have something more serious. We will be watching Shadow closely throughout the weekend, but it was apparent that Malik had gained some status and Grizzer wanted to do something about it. This is why Grizzer is a neighbor and not a pack mate.
The text for today will all be the same for each wolf. Why? Well, for the first time in my nearly 27 years of wolf care, we are sump pumping the water in the wolf yard. The snowmelt and day of rain has left a 10 inch deep layer of water. This usually happens in April, when temperatures are near 40 and the ground is still frozen, but in April, we know it will drain in a week. It is January and the weekend forecast is for temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with a wind chill and more snow coming. If we let this pond freeze in the yard, we will have a serious safety issue for wolf care working on slick ice. The wolf enclosures all have good topography and other than wet from the rain, they have no issues with standing water. They’re just standing on the edge of the fence watching us pump and sweep as the roof keeps dripping. Hence, I don’t have a lot of time to write wolf logs. All wolves are doing well and the warmer temperatures have been kind to Luna.
Malik seems to be backing off on his testing behavior which probably means that Shadow is back to displaying a more dominant role. We don't have much more to add about the retired wolves this week except that we had some good howling footage from Malik as well as Shadow.
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