Moose had injured one of his legs this summer. Due to the way we have socialized our pack, we were able to assess his leg without the need for sedation. No breaks were found, but something was obviously wrong. Our veterinarian prescribed some pain medication, which needed to be given orally. Because we had been bringing all wolves into holding for fly ointment, we simply added the medication to the list of treatments! Our wolves love peanut butter, so we added the medication to some peanut butter and had no problems and Moose recovered quickly. Unfortunately, Mozart easily noticed Moose's weakness and did take advantage. Moose would often win any stand-off interactions, but Mozart was persistant and would continue to follow and harass Moose after a stand-off. Had Moose taken longer to heal, Mozart would have had ample opportunity to rise as pack leader.
Normally wolf packs enter into more calm behavior during the summer months. Our pack tends to be fairly active throughout the year. They normally calm somewhat during the summer, but this year behavior did not seem to calm much. The shift to moving them into holding every day could have been a factor. In order to bring more balance we implemented another management technique with their diet. Wolves have the physical ability to consume mass quantities of food during feeding. We do feed out whole food, such as deer, as often as we can. When deer is not available we offer a ground meat product produced specifically for carnivores. Because they consume the meat product so quickly we had been offering the meat two to three times a week. It is possible that the wolves were not feeling full after eating such small amounts of food. When animals (including humans) don't feel full, they may get a little edgy, thereby increasing the level of redirected aggression. We realized it might be more beneficial to offer meat only once a week to more closely mimic normal feeding behavior. Bones and other treats are offered on a regular basis as enrichment. This shift in managment seems to be working well so far!
Their weight varies throughout their adult life but by the time they are 12 months old they average in weight from 50 and 85 pounds for females and between 70 and 110 pounds for males. Males generally weigh about 20 percent more than females and in some areas of the United States male wolves have reached weights between 120 and 130 pounds!
It is not uncommon in wild wolf packs for members to disburse or die. The pack dynamics will be altered even when the lowest ranking member is absent. So far the other pack members do not seem highly stressed by the new order. This does mean that Orion has now filled the position of lowest ranking wolf. We have noticed a slight increase in redirected aggression from Ella, but she does not seem to be as intense with Orion as she was with Sirius. Orion has always been more willing to submit and hopefully that will not change. We will continue to be observant and respond appropriately, as we have always done, to the behavior and dynamics of our wolves.
