Maya continues to be the most social, frequently whining at the pups. Her interaction with Shadow continues to be submissive, but Shadow is very possessive of the pups. Maya walked next to the fence between Shadow and the pups and he did a hard muzzle bite and growled intensely. Maya submitted, but never moved from the pups, Shadow eventually walked away.
Maya and Shadow have been spending a lot of time sleeping together and sharing time at the fence with the pups. She has been a bit reserved with wolf care staff, which may be the result of the long summer waiting for the pups. We do anticipate her playing an active roll in protecting the pups as well as socially greeting them. She does that now at the gate and we are looking forward to her actual face to face contact with them. The next logs, posted on August 4th, should reveal the complete details of this introduction.
Maya remains very alert to the pups’ movements, and every time they are running or playing rough in the pup enclosure, Maya whines at them. When she is not checking the pups, Maya has been chasing Grizzer, dodging behind the rocks in a “hide and seek behavior.
We may need to check the scale, but according to our initial recording, Maya is weighing in at 93.5 lb. She definitely eats most of the meals here along with Grizzer, but we will check her again later this month. Maya is still the best hunter in the pack, one minnow didn't survive the initial introduction, as Maya brought him to the surface and scent rolled on him.
We have a very good indication that Maya will be a great surrogate mother to the pups. During last week's feeding program, Maya brought a part of a deer to the pups and the next day, she carried a deer leg along the fence line, trying to find a place to push the leg through the fence. These are all good indications of an adult wolf committted to adopting pups.
The following log was written by Nannys Ann Beyers and Lee Williams:<br> Maya came down to the fence along the wolf yard when the pups came out before the 5:00 pm pup program. When Grizzer joined her, she growled at him. Maya came down again to check on the pups at 6:00 pm, whining to them and mostly laying next to the fence. Initially, Denali spent quite a bit of time near Maya and doing some play bows and tail wagging. Aidan joined in later.
The following logs were written by Nannies, Vicki Bomberger and Lynne Haines. <br> Maya, as all the ambassador wolves, has been very active and animated during the cool weather. During the Sunday feeding, Maya was the first wolf on the deer carcass. Maya was intent on pulling the carcass over to the pup pen. She spent a considerable amount of time at the fence between the wolves and the pups. She often whined and greeted the pups. Prior to the Sunday feeding, Maya did a full play bow to Grizzer, which led to a chase around the yard and into the den.
Maya had an interesting observation by one of the staff members. In a recent social moment with Aidan, she slid down the hill on her back, with Aidan standing with his front legs on her chest. The observations of these two wolves reveal far more moments of social interaction in the last few weeks that was recorded in the entire winter. The Ethology course students attending the June Wolf Ethology course will have some good opportunity to better analyze and define this relationship between Maya and Aidan.
Maya seems to be working on showing Denali some boundaries, and Denali seems to be showing Maya no respect. Certainly Maya has a challenge when Denali is nearly a foot taller than she is. We are pleased with the calming nature that warm weather and summer hormones bring to the exhibit, but as the photo shows, you never know when Maya is lurking around a tree.
One thing about wolf behavior is that there is no definitive answer as to why wolves behave the way they do. This is the scenario with Maya. We usually see wolf behavior calming during this time of the year, but Maya has had some intense dominance behavior lately. What we do notice, is that she appears to be more intense on days that Shadow is more reserved. She has been observed blocking Denali and Aidan from Shadow, and while we don't know for sure, but it appears that Shadow's lack of interaction makes Maya more defensive. She may be under more stress to keep the pack rank order with Shadow not participating. When Shadow's retired, she may be under less stress to intervene on Shadow's behalf. Time will tell, and behavioral observations will be critical.
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