January Update-Orion & Sirius

Orion's month has been good, of course his happy-go-lucky nature helps. He receives occasional discipline from Ella, but understands how to react and the interaction usually doesn't escalate. He and Ella have engaged in some play scenarios and they have been very social and 'playful' in nature! Orion regularly submits in Moose's presence by lowering his tail and ears and engaging in muzzle licking greeting behavior, but isn't always as willing to submit to Mozart. As usual, he is most often seen with Sirius and they both tend to remain in the background when the others engage in any dominance disputes.

Sirius has received a little more attention than wanted from Ella, but remains an active member of the pack. He continues to join in chorus howls and is often seen resting within close proximity of the others. He's been fairly bold the past few weeks when it comes to greeting staff members and as soon as the more dominant members are occupied he makes his way over for a quick greeting and tries to leave before being targeted. The greeting rock and staff members are often guarded by more dominant pack members, sometimes making it more difficult for subordinate members to greet. Ella is always on the look out to make sure Sirius and Orion aren't taking up too much time. Some weeks have been fairly calm and other weeks have been a little boisterous and Sirius is usually on the receiving end of some redirected aggression due to a high energy environment. His spirits are usually high, especially when keeper staff are in the enclosure. The winter months tend to be the high tension months due to an increase in hormone levels, winter is coming to a close and hopefully the pack will enter into a more relaxed state and Sirius and Orion can move out from the spotlight a bit.

January Update-Ella

What can I say about Ella. Her behavior this month hasn't been out of the ordinary, but she has displayed a higher rate of play and play soliciting behavior and has been engaged in play bouts with Orion. Her position on disciplining Mozart has not altered much. Her social interaction with Moose hasn't increased much, but has decreased somewhat with Mozart. She keeps a close eye on Sirius and Orion as usual. The fluctuation in temperature has played a part in behavior this month; cooler temperatures usually elicit increased activity which can lead to more intense interaction while warmer temps usually creates calm canines. As mentioned in another post, winter months also bring an increase in hormone levels and with the end of winter in sight, hopefully Ella will become more relaxed and continue in her playful nature.

January Update-M & M

This picture summarizes the month of January for Moose and Mozart. Recent interactions between the two have been somewhat intense, but short-lived and there is usually little to no physical contact. Barks, growls, eye-stares, lip curls, and body posture abound whenever these two are in close proximity. Moose has been more bold in his status as dominant male, but Mozart continues to test his boundaries. The greeting rock is one area highly guarded by Moose and while he is interacting with staff Mozart is kept at a distance. Moose has been very social with staff lately, submitting to allow the removal of snow from his paws and receive a good dose of belly rubs. He was also caught engaging in a few moments of play solicitation this month. Mozart has been his usual high energy self, asserting his position over Orion and trying to test his limit with Moose. I often wonder if these two will ever settle into a calm existence. Our goal as keepers is to try to make their lives in captivity as stress free as possible while still allowing them to go through the process of being wolves, sometimes it's hard to know where the draw the line, which is why observation is so important.

The Road to Recovery

On January 27th 2012 the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes Region (which includes the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) was removed from the federal endangered species list! The gray wolf had nearly disappeared from the lower 48 states by the 1970's due to human persecution. Once the species was placed on the endangered species list, recovery programs began. Population between the 3 states mentioned above is about 4,000 and Minnesota has maintained a wolf population of around 3,000 for the past decade. This means the gray wolf population within this region has reached, and in same cases surpassed, recovery numbers set forth by the federal government. Management of the species is now in the hands of each state. To find out what this means for the wolf as species in Minnesota, visit the MN DNR site listed below. I especially recommend listening to the Q&A session with Dr. Mech, a highly respected researcher and wolf biologist!

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/wolves/mgmt.html

The Grey. Return of the Big Bad Wolf?

This past weekend was the opening of the movie The Grey. In order to comment and reply to questions regarding the film, I did have the opportunity to view the movie and while I am not a movie critic and hesitate to comment on the actual cinematic content, I can say I was terribly dissapointed in regards to the portrayal of wolves. In essence the movie is about a group of oil workers whose plane has crashed in the Alaskan wilderness and the survivors are being hunted by a pack of wolves.

Captive facilities that house animals, like the Red River Zoo, work hard to educate the public about wildlife and its importance in the wild. Part of our education includes dispelling myths and assisting the public in understanding rather than fearing certain animals. The wolf has been and still is surrounded by controversy and myth. The wolf is a highly researched predator and there is a lot of readily available non-biased information about the wolf and its behavior. With the creation of this film it seems that there has been a step back in time, where the idea of 'the big bad wolf' becomes reality. There is very little truth in this movie about how wolves behave. The creators of this film have taken a few real wolf behaviors and extrapolated them to a point of complete unreality.

Wolves are not man-eaters and while they may follow a group of humans out of curiousity they would not kill them off one by one. Wolves are generally quite shy of humans and unless provoked, cornered, in ill health, or starving are highly unlikely to see humans as a source of food, especially adult humans who are in decent health and able to defend themselves. We are also led to believe that the pack is killing off the group in order to defend pups; but we don't really get a clear picture of the exact time of year (looked like winter to me) and wolves spend most of their year travelling through their territory, remaining at or near a den site for a few short weeks in the late spring or early summer. This is just the beginning of many inaccuracies.

Remember, this is a movie, it should not discourage people to venture into the outdoors and should not instill a false sense of fear, but one should not become complacent while hiking or camping in the wilderness; come prepared with pepper spray and maybe even a multi-tool of some sort. Wolves, bears, mountain lions, moose, deer and other large hooved animals can be in the area and some may be curious, especially young animals. If you make a lot of noise to advertise your presence most animals will move off in the opposite direction to avoid an encounter. Surprise encounters have the most potential for danger. If such an encounter occurs, make yourself as big a possible, make a lot of noise, throw rocks or sticks, stand your ground. Most predators and some hooved animals are stimulated by fast movement, so avoid running away if at all possible.

The Grey is just a movie and many of those tales of the big bad wolf are just that, tales based on limited knowledge and fear of the unknown. The wolf is neither deity nor demon, it is an amazing animal with a complex myriad of behaviors. Gaining more knowledge about those behaviors will hopefully help people understand the wolf rather than fear the wolf. You can find more information about the wolf by visiting some of the links on this blog site.

If you want to read more opinions about this movie from those who work closely with wolves feel free to visit the links listed below. So far my personal favorite is iwcwildbytes.blogspot.com as I completely agree with the entire post! I have also posted a link to an article by Dr. Mech, a highly respected wolf biologist; please read this one, as he has first-hand experience living near a pack of wild wolves.

http://www.lfpress.com/entertainment/movies/2012/01/26/19298306.html

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Pack+lies/6058267/story.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/explainer/2012/01/the_grey_and_the_best_way_to_fight_off_wolves_when_they_attack_.html

http://iwcwildbytes.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5PeZ2Y60g4&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/221239/

http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/Products/Publications/3632/3632.pdf

Finally Some Snow-Man!

By the end of December we finally had a measurable amount of snow...

...enough to make a snowman for the wolves!

And the final product! A deer hide toupee, apples for eyes and buttons, a carrot nose, bloodcicle smile, some deer legs as arms and even a wooden walking stick!

Unfortunately my camera died before I could get some good footage of the wolves checking out the new addition to their enclosure; they were moderately interested at first but within a few hours the snowman was no longer a man, just a pile of snow.

Holiday Gifts

Even our wolves enjoy receiving special gifts during the holiday season!

Boxes are wrapped in colorful paper using peanut butter or molasses...yum!


The pack discovers an assortment of treats inside each box...

...but opening each box is usually more exciting than what can be found inside!