Maya is 91 days old today. She is a very submissive pup towards humans as well as to the Arctics through the fence. She seems to seek comfort from the handlers and is often observed climbing in people's laps or if the occasion arises, on people's shoulders. Her greetings of staff at the fence usually include low body posture with her hips spread wide nearly touching the ground. She usually leaves a 1 foot urine trail on the way to the staff.
Today Maya is 92 days old. She is constantely watching outside her enclosure. It seems that she knows that soon she and her packmates are going in with Malik and Shadow. Whe watches them play, run and she joins them in the howling every night. She is defending her food more from Nyssa. In the afternoon program, she actually kept the deer leg for herself for several minutes, while Grizzer and Maya were unable to aproach it.
Today Maya is 94 days old. Maya was frequently dominated by her littermates. Both Grizzer and Nyssa were dominating her while they were in the wolf yard awaiting programs. Maya was in a submissive position with a tucked tail for a prolonged time period as Grizz and Nyssa were aggressively dominating her. Maya did very well during programs.
Maya is 44 days old today. Maya did well during programs and played with ice and lapped ice water out of a bowl, and also chewed on pigs ears and deer feet. When the retired wolves were howling, Maya was very alert, ears up and looking at window facing retired pack. She did not howl with, but was intent on the direction of the sound.We hard time weighing Maya. We slid the weighing sling under her and let her fall asleep. Once she was sleeping we weighed her.
Maya is 49 days old today. When music was introduced to the pups to provide a calming effect she seemeed particularly attuned to changes in the music's pitch and rythm. Maya is very sensitive when people walk in and out of the wolf lab. She tends to get very excited and paces around for several minutes before calming down. She also had a very good greeting with the arctics. Maya crouched down low in a groveling stance and flat ears. While whining, she crept toward the artics, who had raised tails and high ears. She also rolled over submissively. Maya seems to be targeting Nyssa during domination attempts while in the outside puppy pen.
Today Maya is 51 days old. Maya has been particularly interested in the new chew toys presented to the pups today. She has been playing tug of war with her littermates, chewing on it as well as running after it. During the 3:00 pm program Maya and Nyssa were repeatedly displaying aggressive interactions with one another. It was a great opportunity for the audience to see these intense aggressive interactions which wolves display while competing for food resources. When the pups went outside Maya and Nyssa continued to compete for posession of a beaver carcass. Maya and her littermates slept through most of the evening hours following an exciting day of romping on the beaver carcass and playing in the outside puppy for two hours.
Today Maya is 57 days old. Because of the warm weather, Maya was not very active today. She was occupied while she was awake with a deer ear.
Today Maya is 71 days old. She did well during the programs, either chewing on deer hide or playing with Grizzer. When she fell asleep during one of the programs she didn't object to being moved by a nanny. Lately she has needed some prodding before she wants to eat, and has been caching a considerable amount of her food.
Maya is 52 days old today. Maya still initiates dominance interactions over her packmates. With staff and nannies, however, she has become much more affectionate, sometimes seeking out their laps to sit on. She will also seek out staff and/or nannies to sleep next to. The staff and nannies recently started playing classical
ature music in the indoor pup pen in the wolf lab. Maya seems to respond to the music, as she frequently falls asleep when it is playing. Today Nyssa urinated near the entrance gate, then Maya went there, sniffed and urinated on top of it. This is one of the heirarchical behaviors that is developing between the puppies. Pups spent much of the morning in the outdoor pup pen. Maya ran around, explored, and greeted the arctics vigorously with a wagging tail and flat ears. Maya was kept occupied during the 11:00a.m. program with a beaver tail. During the afternoon program, Maya was anxious and was whining & climbing on the gate to get out. She was not easily distracted with stimulus items. Maya's appetite continues to be very good; she consumed her venison mix in a matter of minutes.
Today Maya is 53 days old. When she was taken into the outdoor pen, she greeted the arctics vigorously and responds to their whining by putting her ears flat and rolling over in submission at the shared fenceline. Maya did well during the 11 am program, she chewed on a beaver tail and fell asleep for the rest of the program. On the 1 pm program, shewas calmed throughout most of it. She spend most of her time investigating some fruit we had set out as new stimuli. Maya showed some dominance by grabbing Nyssa by the throat and kept presuring for a while until shewas distracted with a pig's ear and left her. She still looks for nannies to cuddle up with and tries to steel Nyssa's bootle whenever she can.
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.