This week's logs were written by Walter Loesberg, a regular visitor to the wolf center from the Netherlands: Maya displayed a fair amount of curiosity towards the new holding pen arrangement this week, which features double fences to separate the wolves. Gradually, she got comfortable with this novel addition and was moving in and out with ease. When wolf care staff came in today, the pack appeared anxious, and kept glancing upwards, possibly indicating that they may have been focused on the numerous ravens that have been in within the enclosure.
Maya has been good support for Grizzer during this time, and is showing the signs of a dominant female who gets right in the mix. Her face has some old scars, and her ear and lip show a recent issue with Aidan. Please don't think poorly of Maya, it is the role of the dominants to ensure the pack understands rank, and Maya shows this role well. Winter hormones influence this behavior, and we can always tell when there's a surge in hormones.
Maya seems to have settled the idea of who will run the pack. She is sleeping with Grizzer and parallel gating with him, good indications that she supports his status. In the last few days, she's been much calmer. Of all the wolves on Exhibit, Maya responds with anxiety when there's change or uncertainty and anxiety usually means redirection. Aidan's noticed the change and we are seeing far less concern about her presence. We even observed Aidan howling with the pack on top of the hill today, something that wouldn't have occurred even a few weeks ago.
Maya is usually very graceful, but this week's video shows her falling of the rock into the pond. There's not much to report for Maya except that she is still very bonded to Shadow and during a recent rainstorm (over 8 inches in 6 hours), she again was laying under the eaves of the building sleeping next to Shadow.
Maya is very calm since Denali's holding, which makes Aidan calm as well. Both Aidan and Maya have been in the den on a regular basis, and have been very interactive. Maya likes the chicken feeding routine, and does a long face wipe in the snow after eating her fair share of chicken on Friday morning. The Youtube video this week shows that behavior of a satisfied wolf.
During the first pack feeding, Maya did extremely well. She approached the carcass and started eating, even when Malik and Shadow were pulling from it. She defended her food from his packmate Grizzer, but was very carefull in approaching Nyssa. After chewing on the carcass, she went back to upper part of the enclosure to rest. Here you can see a diamond shape shade on Maya's back than can help differenciate her from Grizzer.
Maya had the hardest time of all the pups during the introduction. She is a very submissive pup, always seeking contact with humans and wolves. Her constant submissive begging toward Shadow earned her several dominant grabs. Shadow was gentle, but stern, but Maya continued to seek a greeting. As time went on, Maya became a bit more fearful. Her fear response resulted in a tucked tail and she frequently bolting away from the Arctics. As soon as she ran away, the Arctics displayed much more predatory behavior with higher tails and grabs from behind. As the day progressed, her fear subsided and she spent time in the front of the exhibit chasing grasshoppers.
Maya is described by staff as being very sweet natured. When staff enter the enclosure, Grizzer tends to dominate the staff's time. As he's teething, he attempts to use staff arms as a chew toy. This behavior is strongly discouraged. So, staff tend to spend a lot of time with Grizzer. Maya patiently waits on the rock or by the fence until Grizzer's lessons are done, then approaches for a greeting. Maya seems to seek the arctics attention actively face licking them to get a greeting, which usually results in her rolling over on her back for them. There was some concern that Maya's coat wasn't developing as well, so she gets a can of tuna on her food twice a day. This seems to have helped and she enjoys it. The task is to keep Grizzer and Nyssa's face out of Maya's bowl.
Maya is incredible sweet natured. When wolf care staff enter the enclosure, she patiently waits for everyone else to finish, then rubs up against the staff's legs to get attention. As suspected, she's showing signs of being the omega of the pack. So far, there's been a few chase scenes with Maya as the focus of the pack, but her timid nature causes her to roll over and submit easily, giving the pack no more reason to chase. She seems to seek out the other pack members looking, following them and actively seeking dominance. It seems important to her to be part of the pack. Nyssa on the other hand….. check her logs to find out.
Today, Groan is 22 days old and like Grizz also has exhibited head shaking with play toys, a feeding behavior seen in wolves when they are tearing open a carcass. Groan frequently displays aggressive behavior towards her littermates and handlers by growling when she is displeased.
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