Sorry for not posting wolf logs last week. I took the weekend off for a fishing trip with my grandson. I am also preparing for the Working for Wolves program this weekend, we will be making Grizzer a pond and getting some gate systems set up. I won’t have time to process video for Youtube until Sunday night, so thanks for understanding.
Malik is the only wolf that showed limited salivation when presented with the smell of pups. He was a lower ranking wolf, and that may influence his response to pups. Other than the pups, Malik had a hard week when the pond
Malik was observed initiating several play bouts with the pups this week. He and Shadow have been involved in several dominance bouts which have been extremely noisy, but harmless so far. They seem to escalate as Maya and Nyssa are sorting out their dominance issues.
I believe we eluded to the fact that Malik doesn't have as strong of an interest or has had as much change in behavior since the pups arrival. Malik is also influenced by the wolf care staff. There is one staff person in particular that gives Malik a lot of confidence. When Malik gets confidence, he takes opportunities. In his latest bout of testing, he decided to try to grab the Curator's boots while they were still on her feet. The pups had previously chewed the same boots, so there may have been a stimulus of smell. He was unsuccessful in his attempts, but we know Malik will look for another opportunity to possess any item, guarded or not.
We have observed a noticeable change in the relationship between Shadow and Malik as it relates to food possession. Malik normally guards and possess most of the food making it difficult to make sure Shadow gets his fair share. Since the pups arrival, there is less guarding of food and we even have surveillance video that shows them eating within 2 feet of each other in front of the den.
During the fire, both Shadow and Malik were very calm, the result of the sedatives. What we didn't expect the sedative to last into the next day. This is likely an age related issue, but wolf care staff said Malik wouldn't get up for his meds. That's unusual, but a visit by the staff inside the enclosure did get him stimulated and greeting on the den.
Malik has been asserting his dominance over Maya at the risk of getting a response from Shadow and Shadow is there in an instant to remind Malik of his position. We did see some redirected aggression later in the evening after Lucas was euthanized, that may have been a response to all the activity in the wolf yard. When Malik tries to assert his dominance of Grizzer, he's finding a young, developing male wolf that isn't going to take it as easliy as he once did.
Written by Wolf Ethology students; Alastair Small, Gery Egan, Gerald Egan. Meat and leftover pizza was hidden by wolf care staff around the enclosure to stir up interest among the pack. Malik explored the enclosure with a confident gait with a relaxed tail position. He RLU'd on a rock near the window, and defecated a few minutes later near by, marking the areas were food was located. He interacted a few times with other pack members. He approached Grizzer near the top of pond, Grizzer had a piece of food and growled at Malik. Grizzer wandered off and Malik got what was left. In another incident with Grizzer, Malik went up the hill above the pond away from the other wolves and found a piece of pizza. Grizzer came up and took it away from Malik, who then left, coming down to the bottom of the pond. Towards the end of the event, Malik showed his dominance over Maya, by raising his tail as he walked by. Throughout the entire program, Malik generally stayed away from the other wolves. When all the treats were found, Malik rested in the Sphinx position near Shadow.
Malik is doing well, still starting issues with Maya, that Shadow immediately solves. During the feeding, Malik had possession of food and Maya came over to food beg. When he started growling and hard muzzle biting Maya, Shadow immediately came over to show posture his dominance in front of Malik. While Shadow was occupying Malik's attention, Maya took off with the meat. There was plenty of meat fed, so all wolves got their share. Lately, since the heat is likely to discourage the wolves from eating, wolf care staff have been "enhancing" the average beaver dinner. Staff put bacon in the beavers mouth, remove the stomach and intestines, and replace it with unusual treats (frozen cornish game hens, fish, pork sausage, etc) and inject the flesh of the beaver with beef broth. The wolves are extremely excited to investigate these upscale beaver, and readily eat. This allows them to consume food while it's fresh, rather than let the food gather flies in this heat. The trade-off is that they are very full on the day after the feeding and rarely come out of their den for daily programs.
Malik hasn't cached much in the den lately, probably due to the recent snowfall. There's finally enough snow on the ground to actually cache something larger than a pig's ear. When you spend a lot of time with the wolves, it's sometimes easy to overlook the daily behavioral patterns of the individuals. This past week, we have noticed a significant amount of raven watching from Malik. By dawn, the ravens start to perch on the trees in the various enclosures. Malik is very tuned into the sound and sights of these perching birds. This may be related to his defense of food. Out of all the wolves on site, Malik demonstrates more guarding behavior than any other wolves.
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