Shadow has fared the winter well, and we can probably say that he maintains his status as the dominant wolf. We see no signs of testing of his status and he is socially interactive with all the wolves in the Exhibit. Vermilion Community College's Wolf Ethology course is currently conducting observations, with the objective of evaluating frequency of wolf interactions and sleeping associations among individuals. We hope to have their data results by May, 10th, 2009.
As video clips will show, Shadow is still a very active dominant male, and has been observed in a lot of interactions towards Grizzer, most often when Grizzer gets too excited towards staff, the pups (yearlings) or Malik. This might be protectionism behavior, as Shadow is aging, he will act quickly and swiftly to any sign of Grizzer gaining status, which is more likely than Shadow taking on an active role to protect staff. Shadow's weight is a bit of a concern, in May of 2005, he weighted 95 lbs, in July of 2008, he weighted 92.5, now, he is 88.6 lbs. It is common for older animals to lose weight, but when a dominant wolf does, it might have negative impacts. Of course, it's probably the role of the dominant wolf that is making him work so hard. By the look of the photos, the stress is not just physical.
Shadow continues to be extremely social with staff and greets like no other wolf. His exuberance with the cooler temperatures combined with less flies and 5 lbs of chicken in his stomach made for an excited wolf check this morning. It was also a wet wolf care check, as rain fell through out the night and the mornings brought continued drizzle and colder weather. In the past several weeks, we have been reviewing photos, and thought we would share the pup pictures of our current retired wolves.
Shadow has settled into a routine of eating 3 – 5 lbs of food every 2 – 3 days. His preference rotates between chicken and beef, with a portion of a deer carcass every 7 – 10 days. He's taking a break from beaver. The last two beaver we fed were taken out of the enclosure 5 days after feeding. They looked the same, but smelled much worse. In contrast, anything that is fed to the Exhibit Pack, doesn't come out unless it's in the form of scat. Winter may change the retired wolves feeding pattern, but as long as we have chicken and beef on the defrost table, Shadow enjoys life.
One thing we've learned about retired wolves is that they have a way of wrapping the wolf care staff around their paws…. What do I mean by this? Well, let's start with food. As we've written about before, Shadow had lost a lot of weight in his last few months as the pack leader of the Exhibit Pack. So, we were very concerned about increasing his weight prior to winter. This meant the offering of food several times a day, changing the variety of food, delivering food so that he didn't have to compete with Malik. Now, we have a good solid weight on Shadow, but we've also got a wolf who has become picky about what, how and when he eats. He will only take chicken if it's held up for him, not placed on the ground, he only wants beef in small chunks and it should be room temperature, he doesn't care for beaver any more, a deer torso should have some of the hide removed… You get the point. Of course, they're wolves and there is a side that says, if he's hungry enough, he'll eat whatever we serve (like Malik, who eats anything). But, there's another side, he's old, he maintained order in the Exhibit Pack for 8 years, he deserves some comforts, that's what defines Best Management Practices.
Shadow has been in a fairly good mood, which means he is more accepting of staff and has a spring in his step. When he gets excited, he displays a whirl behavior, where he spins around then races away with a low body posture, wagging his tail. What has changed, is the interactions between Malik and Shadow. While they still have many video clips from the security camera that show good compatibility, there are moments during wolf care that show them facing off, with both posturing a high tail. Malik is holding his own, but Shadow usually wins the stand off.
Shadow continues to need special feeding times and techniques. The Curator spends each evening with the Retired Pack, often taking an hour or so to get Shadow to eat 3 lbs of meat. It's a relaxing end to busy days, and has allowed the bond with Shadow to increase. Shadow shows excitement during these evening sessions and may spend time chasing around the enclosure or crawling in and out of his new den hole he dug near the pond. We weren't certain how deep the hole extended, but on Thursday night's feeding session, Shadow was able to crawl in, turn around and peer up at the Curator, before getting excited and lunging out of the den to do a whirl.
Shadow has very little tolerance for fly ointment application. We have tried every way to sneak it on his ears, but he smells the ointment and avoids us. This is not the best scenario because at this age, we need to physically check him on a daily basis. We've come to a solution that seems to work (other than hoping for cold and snow, which would also work). We spray cedar oil in and around the den, which does wonders for keeping the den relatively fly proof (considering it has a 5 foot wide opening). We also spray a pet safe fly repellent on a birch stump and the wolves scent roll, getting repellent on the top of the head. This is not as good as using ointment on the tips of their ears, but it keeps the flies of their head, which is a great help. This is obviously the better choice than having Shadow avoid us and this serves as a good reminder that we need to condition Boltz and Luna to fly issues.
Shadow has the hardest time with the heat and he's resorted to sleeping under the dense vegetation in the back of the enclosure. This is great for him, but the drawback is that we can't see him from the surveillance camera nor from the lab window. This means frequent trips to retirement to check on him, which usually gets him up and defeats the purpose of letting them rest during the heat. At least we can turn on the sprinkler hose every time we go out, so when he gets up, he has nice cool soil at the front of the enclosure where he greets.
Shadow remains the dominant wolf in this pack and his calm presence when the others are chaotic is very noticeable. The pups have their daily activity that makes the rest of the pack excited. When Shadow is in a good mood and very excited, he races around the enclosure, getting the rest of the wolves to chase him. He even rolls over and submits, but is always very guarded about which wolf is jumping on him and is quick to get up and assert his status.
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