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Helping Save Mexican wolves (#10) – F1305 just wants to have fun
Nearly exterminated in the wild during by the 1930s, the Mexican wolf remains one of the most endangered mammals in North America. In May, Wolf Haven’s Director of Animal Care Wendy Spencer assisted in the care & observation of two wolves scheduled for future release. This is Part 10 of an ongoing series of blog posts about her experience in Arizona.
While M1107 would take a time out from fence fighting, F1305 would play on the nearby log pile. She had what would be analogous to a play face and though her tail was straight up, her movements were exaggerated and clumsy as she would often try and invite M1107 to play.
He wanted no part though, as he was clearly in battle mode and focused solely on his rivals. Obviously, there was a conversation that took place between him and the pair because after several minutes of truce (and rest) the three wolves would once again take up their positions at the fence and resume fighting. Meanwhile, the little female would bow and jump around in circles- clearly she did not take this as serious as her new companion did. However, when the fence fighting would increase in intensity, then she would join the fray briefly.
Enclosure where fence fighting between captive and free-ranging Mexican gray wolves took place.
The fence fighting continued for almost 2 hours but just before 7 am, I observed the pair walk over to far side of the pen and curl up in a day bed. M1107 paced back and forth along the fence line as if trying to encourage them to come back, but to no avail. Realizing the pair was not going to take his bait, he headed towards the north side of the pen where he took up post like a sentry. He eventually lay down, but kept a watchful eye. The little female was relentless in her attempts to get M1107 to play- she kept pouncing his head and playfully nipping at his rump, but he ignored her. Perhaps out of sheer boredom, she eventually laid down as well.
Throughout the morning either M1107 or F1226 would initiate a howl but all four would stop what they were doing and join in- it was mesmerizing. Even as I made my way back to camp, I would hear their melodic chorus as it drifted by, carried on the early morning breeze. However, in addition to the howling, I heard bouts of fighting as well and that continued well on into the late morning….. (to be continued)
Helping Save Mexican Wolves (#8) – wild wolves, wild horses, & magic
Nearly exterminated in the wild during by the 1930s, the Mexican wolf remains one of the most endangered mammals in North America. In May, Wolf Haven’s Director of Animal Care Wendy Spencer assisted in the care & observation of two wolves scheduled for future release. This is Part 8 of an ongoing series of blog posts about her experience in Arizona.
Wolf paw print
Recently the IFT had confirmed the alpha female of the Bluestem pack had 5 pups, which brought their total to 10- the largest pack in the area. In order to try and insure that they stayed out of trouble, the IFT decided to temporarily put out a cache pile so Quinn and I left a few dozen pounds of carnivore logs for them. The wolves were obviously coming in and feeding off the pile because tracks were all around the area and there was a trail camera set up in order to visually confirm that the wolves were indeed coming in and eating from it rather than being totally scavenged by ravens.
Then we went looking for the remaining member of the Hawk’s Nest pack. We drove over to his known range and because the wolves prefer to travel on the existing forest service roads, it was fairly easy to pick up his tracks. It was obvious to me that Quinn was familiar with this male and his habits because Quinn just opened the door to his truck as he slowly drove until he was able to spot a track. From there we got out and followed his trail a bit before it disappeared into the tree line.
About 100 horses that wandered from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation live in the area.
As we drove back to the trailer we came across a group of wild horses grazing in a meadow off the side of the road. Apparently the forest is home to about 100 horses that have wandered off the Fort Apache Indian Reservation (FAIR) and now live amongst the elk, deer and big horn sheep that call the forest home. They were so beautiful and majestic- I just sat and watched from a distance while they were in the area. They didn’t seem to give a rip about us, but as a horse person, I was thrilled to have a chance to see them- what a gift!
Beautiful moon shines over the landscape
Nighttime in the Apache is magical- the moon was waxing gibbous that week so each night, the forest was bathed in pale yellow moonlight, silhouetting the old aspens against the midnight skies that were adorned with millions of stars. The forest came alive at night and I imagined the revelries of its inhabitants as I stood with my telemetry equipment in hand, afraid to turn it on, lest it somehow disturb them. In those moments, I had an abiding awareness of my intrusion into this secret, enchanted world of the forest but did my best to minimize my incursion………… (to be continued)
brotherly love
Siblings Myta and Chai
Chai, one of our female San Bernardino wolves, was transported to the vet on Tuesday for surgery. Chai, who will be 10 this month, has remained intact since her arrival in 2000. She is housed with her brother, Myta Jr., who is altered, so there was no risk of pups. However, the last couple of years, she has been having very severe false pregnancies, with symptoms persisting into August. We decided to do a complete spay so that she would not have to endure another season.
While Chai was at the vet, Myta received a portion of his regular meal, since Tuesday is a normal feeding day for the wolves. When Chai returned, she was not ready to go out so she spent some time recovering in her crate until she had burned through the anesthetic drugs.
By around six that evening she was ready to go; we transported her into her enclosure and opened the gate of the crate and backed off, allowing her to come out on her own time.
Myta Jr. just watched her from a distance, slowly walking back and forth, whining. As soon as Chai exited her crate, he took off running. We thought maybe he was going to run over and greet her but instead he ran to his meat pile. “oh… how sweet,” we thought. “he’s going to offer her a piece of his meat.” but instead he proceeded to scarf it down as fast as he could.
Cienega pack
Mexican wolf pups
The first pack of Mexican gray wolves that were transferred from Wolf Haven for release into the wild was the Hawk’s Nest pack, in 1998. Two year’s later, on March 12, 2000, a second group of endangered Mexican wolves, the Cienega pack, left Wolf Haven for Seattle, WA, and then flown to AZ. Once there, the pack was transported to the heart of the Apache National Forest.
The group was placed in a soft wire mesh acclimation pen in the hopes that they would spend some time acclimating and subsequently localizing in the area once released. However, the pack had other ideas. Within 45 minutes, they chewed through the mesh and all but one male pup (m620) self –released and left the pen. By March 14th, the pup ventured from the pen and reunited with his family and together, they roamed the wilds of their new home.
Posturing
Mexican wolf brothers M1066 (left) and M1135 (right)
Today while doing the walk through I observed some posturing between our 3 sibling male Mexican gray wolves. The brothers, who are housed together, were born here at Wolf Haven (2 were born in 2007 and the other in 2008) . While the boys lived with their parents and female siblings for several years, they have been living alone as bachelors since 2010.
Fortunately they had the benefit of being parent reared and as such, learned appropriate behavior. We would often observe (via remote camera) the parents chastising the pups when they got out of line and because they were a multigenerational group, they had lots of siblings (8) to not only play with, but to practice ritualized fighting with as well, subsequently developing good social skills.
Even though the parents are the ones in charge, there is a linear hierarchy that exists within the group that is not only age graded, but sex graded as well- meaning that the males and females work out their own chain of command and rarely do dominance disputes cross gender lines. Very early on the 3 boys established a hierarchy among themselves and it has remained pretty stable up until recently. Even when they moved into their own enclosure, away from their sire, the male who had been in charge (M1066) retained the dominant role. However, the youngest of the 3, M1135 has started to test the waters this season and it appears that there may be a shift in dynamics. This is not uncommon, particularly in a disrupted pack. For although the alpha pair’s (or parents’) leadership will stay stable, the rest of the group’s dynamics are in flux. Things like dispersal, injury, or attrition can lead to an opportunity for a lower ranking animal to move up in status. In the case of captive wolves, something as seemingly benign as a move from one enclosure to another can prompt a shift.
So far, our 3 bachelors have lived a pretty peaceful coexistence. During breeding season we saw them periodically get a little testy with one another but usually it presented in raised tails and/or hackles. There were never any actual physical confrontations (that we observed). Same sex groupings, particularly males, seem to get along pretty well together – of course, all bets would be off if we were to introduce a female into the fray- and our boys are no exception.
Breeding season has come and gone, so naturally we would expect to see less posturing. However, today as I rounded the corner to their enclosure, I observed M1135 facing off with M1066-his tail and hackles were raised, his face was set in an agonistic pucker as he emitted a low growl. M1066 had his head turned away in avoidance, which is a submissive behavior, but the rest of his body language sent a different message. His tail and hackles were also raised and his body was rigid, indicating that he wasn’t quite ready to submit. However, his brother body slammed him and M1066 tucked his tail and turned away, redirecting towards the other brother, M1067, who is the lowest ranking of the 3.
There is never a dull moment when you work with animals (especially wolves) and it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Stay tuned….
bucket and tub day
Wendy looks on as Jinkies plays in her splash tub.
Yesterday was bucket and tub day. While the wolves’ water buckets are emptied and refilled with clean water at least daily, on an as-needed basis (usually once a week) we pull every water bucket and 50 gallon splash tub out of each enclosure and giving them a thorough cleaning before replacing and refilling. Because we operate on a well and water pressure is already pretty low, it doesn’t help the process when you are trying to fill tubs and as fast as you fill, the wolves are standing in them splashing the water out. It took 4 attempts to get Jinkies’ tub filled because as soon as I would get any measurable amount of water in her tub, she would jump in and splash it all back out. At one point she even laid down in the tub while I was filling it. I think she takes a certain delight in vexing me but she was having fun so I would have stayed all day if necessary 🙂 Wendy