Shadow is one of the most animated greeters we have here. This means, he is very expressive about his interactions with wolf care staff, putting his head and paws into the greeting. We truly understand the social nature of these animals when interacting with Shadow.
Shadow is feeling so much better, and has been very impressive showing his status. Not only is he doing chin rests, but in today's check he did a full ride-up behavior. Pretty impressive for a wolf that is 11 1/2 years old this week. He can also jump from the front of the den to the top of the den in one leap. Malik tried this today and couldn't get his back leg up to the top without some help from wolf care staff. We have always had a policy that any wolf over 7 years of age gets Cosequin and Durlactin supplements, and we don't think we'd have as much mobility in these older animals without it. You may have noticed that we updated our wolf care wish list, and if anyone wants to donate, these nutritional supplements, as well as other items are shown on our website.
Shadow has been having a good winter. We continue to make sure there are no negative issues in the wolf yard to cause him some anxiety. The snowblower has been in near daily use this winter, and Shadow has taken the lead in getting the pups acclimated to the noise. Initially, the pups were very anxious and ran from the sound, but lately, when Curator, Lori Schmidt fires up the snowblower, Shadow's been playing and distracting the pack to the point that they don't even notice it anymore. I'm not sure it this is intentional, or if he is so relaxed this winter that nothing bothers him and he takes the sign of the pups anxiety as a time for social interaction. Regardless, he's a great pack leader and while we know a wolf going on 9 years of age may be a short timer for retirement, it's hard to imagine this pack run by anyone else.
The wolves did well with the recent cold snap last week. Wolf care faced temperatures of – 39 below on 2 mornings, – 32 below on one morning and a warm spell of – 26 below and Friday's balmy – 16 below… The wolf care staff are here 7 days a week, 365 days a year to ensure that the wolves have the best care possible. I recently received an email asking if the arctics are more adapted to the cold, and deal with it better. The reality is, all of these wolves are built for cold, but the ability to deal with extreme cold has more to do with age. The pups don't even notice, and the arctics, going on 9 years of age, long for the straw beds. Shadow is doing quite well despite the cold, and he continues to be the calming influence of this pack. He also continues to test some of the newest handlers, reminding all of us that even though we socialize the wolves at a young age, they decide who gets to be their social companion.
Shadow continues to be a strong leader to the pack and is very vocal about his status when the pups need dominance. Again, Shadow is the indicator of pack energy. If he is calm, dominance scuffles from the lower ranking wolves don't tend to last as long. If Shadow is stressed, aggression throughout the pack is intensified. It's the staff's job to keep Shadow's anxiety levels as low as possible.
We can tell when fall is approaching by the change in behaviors. First, the subtle following behavior begins. This is where one wolf follows another in a form of intimidation. Then, we start to see more RLU and scraping behaviors, and before long, there's chin rests and ride-up's. According to Shadow's behavior, fall is right around the corner.
Once again, Shadow has been demonstrating the behaviors that make a pack leader strong. It is amazing to watch the slow deliberate posturing, chin rests, eye contact and body movement that commands respect from other pack members. To be there filming it and sharing it with viewers is very rewarding. We want to provide some details about the camera situation in retirement. With a recent software upgrade, the server started to block the webcams and actually locked out our website. Tech support has not been able to solve the server issue so I had to turn off the cameras. I was able to install the pup cam in the building for the Exhibit Pack, but unfortunately the USB cable that runs a live streaming camera doesn't run a great distance, so the longer distance to retirement will not support the live streaming camera that we used in the building on the Exhibit Pack. A local vendor is getting us a camera to see what's effective for a long distance run to retirement and Grizzer's pen. We are working on these options and know that people are very connected to these wolves and we want to return the broadcast as soon as possible. I know it's frustrating considering we seem to always have challenges with cameras, but it's not an easy task to run cabling over 100 feet and mount it on a wolf pen (out of reach of wolves), then protect it from sun, rain, snow and freezing temperatures. It is my top priority after the care and needs of the wolves.
While Malik has been keeping Shadow from the lower den, he rules the top of the den. Shadow has taken some possession of the smaller amounts of food that have been feed more frequently. We can tell when he's been satiated, he is slow to take meds the next morning and he is not a very enthusiastic greeter.
In the interest of getting logs posted tonight, I’m copying the same text. The priorities in my job include pup feeding time. We have a short period of time to maximize growth and get Luna and Boltz the resources necessary to prepare for a Northern Minnesota winter. Feedings require time, patience and some ingenuity. As I write this, I just finished a successful pup feeding with Luna eating over a pound of venison and another ½ pound of chicken. It was not quite as successful with Boltz, but he was caching everything I offered, so he must have been full. Boltz does utilize the remaining carcasses from previous feedings and his scats are dark, indicating meat consumption. Aidan has had some tremendous social bonding behavior with Luna, unfortunately, I didn’t get it on tape. With cooler weather stimulating hormones, we are bound to see more. Grizzer is the beneficiary of most of the pups left overs. He does enjoy that part of wolf care. Shadow and Malik continue to posture with Shadow more dominant, but they don’t have any issues when it comes to sharing the den in a rainstorm. Thanks for checking in, I hope to have more time next week to give a more complete update of each wolf. We have started to increase the feedings or all the retirees, and are in need of some pigs ears to serve as distractions as the pups continue to be the focus of the staff.
Malik and Shadow did extremely well with the work projects. They were temporarily moved into the pack holding area and showed very little intimidation or bark howling on Saturday. On Sunday, Shadow did a bit of bark howling, but overall, they were very tolerant of the work.
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