Maya is 93 days old today. She greets the staff extremely well with submissive rollovers, a wagging tail and great face lick. Of all the pups, she is most likely to howl with the Arctics. She was observed trying to stand over Nyssa and ride up on her hindquarters.
Today Maya is 81 days old. In the morning, she and Nyssa discovered a little toad that entered the puppy pen and immediately tried to put a paw on him. She tried to bite him and learned her lesson the hard way…"never chew on something slimy…it may pee on you!!!
Similar to the intial introduction day, Maya chose not to come into holding on the pups reintroduction to the pack after their surgery recovery. She whined at the gate and waited, but did interact with them upon their arrival back. She developed a slight limp yesterday afternoon, no doubt from an over exhuberant chase around the pond. There's no indication of an external injury, just some muscle stiffness. Staff will be montitoring her several times a day and treat accordingly.
After the new den was installed in the Exhibit Pack, Maya was the first to climb on it and mark it, followed by Shadow. Maya continues to whine at Lakota when she's near the fence, and these two spend some time, nose to nose, without any aggression. Maya's interest in the pups is about the same, mostly interacting over food, and the pups don't often win. The pups are still fed on a daily basis when they are removed from the Exhibit, and Maya will come into the pack holding area after a feeding to look for leftovers. The video clips posted with the wolf logs are very short, if you would like to see several minutes of the pack activitiy, we are now posting weekly videos on Youtube. To locate these videos, search for the International Wolf Center.
Maya continues to be a bit reserved with the pups, but I did see a moment of play behavior with Aidan, when she was rolling over and letting him climb on her. She does interact with Grizzer as a littermate, and most of her “play behavior is with Grizzer. She continues to hinder Grizzer when he’s in a chase around the pond after Malik, by grabbing hold of his back leg and having Grizzer drag her along.
The wolf logs for the Exhibit Pack will contain the same text, due to extra time needed for Lakota (see Lakota's log). The Exhibit Pack is doing well, consuming a lot of food and spending quite a bit of time in and on the new den. The wolf care staff heard wild wolves howl several times on Saturday's overnight, which may explain why Shadow has been doing so many lone defensive howls lately. Aidan appears to be catching up to Denali's weight, and the pups continue to eat on a daily basis, either a carcass with the pack on Saturdays and Wednesday's or daily chicken, beef or venision during the other evenings.
Written by assistant wolf curator, Donna Prichard: <br> Maya continues to spend much time with or near Shadow. Wolf care staff have noticed that she has become very food oriented since the spring. She is very possessive of her food from the other pack members, particularly Aidan and Denali. She tends to stay out of the male dominance interactions and can often be found exploring, investigating, and scavenging throughout the enclosure by herself. Maya is still very predatory and can also be observed at times stalking and lunging at ravens who come in to scavenge from the leftover carcasses from feedings.
Maya has been very helpful keeping Grizzer's wound clean, but she's been a bit too helpful in grooming one of the stitches. Her nibbling behavior pulled a stitch and left a small opening on Grizzer's wound, but it actually may be a benefit, because it has improved drainage from the wound. Maya has also been much calmer with Aidan, without the Denali/Grizzer tension, she doesn't react as much to Aidan's activities. We see the difference on Aidan's presence on the web cam greeting rock camera.
Maya was a key player in Denali's reintroduction, showing support to Grizzer, but not showing dominance to Denali. We intentionally held Aidan in the medical pen in case Maya got excited and redirected, but Aidan was able to join the pack within 20 minutes, and was excited to rally with the pack. Maya did surprise us on some surveillance camera video, she was rolling on her back in what appeared to be a good mood, with Aidan watching. The video clip is on the Youtube channel this week along with Denali's introduction footage.
Maya has shown some strong bonding with Grizzer and clearly associates as a dominant pair. Although, in the last few days, she has been asserting dominance over Grizzer, with some intense growls. Grizzer is very passive to her and just takes it in stride with no response. This is the time of the year that Maya shows the most conflicted behavior, one minute she is rubbing against another wolf, trying to pair bond, another minute later, she is pinning them to the ground (Aidan only), or doing a ride up behavior with an intensity one wouldn't expect from a wolf of her size. We have one word for this behavior, and it's not in the Ethogram, we call it hormones.
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