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One Big Unhappy Family
As I mentioned in the July notes, at this year’s Species Survival Plan (SSP) meeting the decision was made to try to introduce a group of female wolves to the Zoo's four males, in an attempt to form a non-breeding pack. The three females arrived from the Wild Canid Center in Eureka, Missouri, in early October, and were given hormone implants to prevent pregnancy shortly after their arrival. They were all in excellent health and spent a 30-day quarantine period in our Large Animal Holding space.
A few days ago, Zoo staff removed the four males from their enclosure and allowed the three females to get accustomed to the area and "meet" the four males, who were in a nearby pen separated by a gate. The animals in both packs seemed to be very comfortable in the area and greeted each other in what appeared to be positive ways (in wolf language, anyway). We opened the pen gate this morning and things quickly got very exciting.The males raced out of the holding pen and tried to greet the three females. Two of the females immediately ran from them, but the males were able to surround one of the females and she immediately submitted. The wolves all sniffed each other, and the female was accepted.
Things were not as easy for the other two females. The newly-formed group of four males and one female immediately tried to chase and bite the other two females and this continued throughout the day. The two females, ran with their tails tucked, and received a few bites in the hip area. To some degree, this is normal wolf behavior when dominance and submission are being tested, but we were concerned about the intensity of the chasing by the males. We knew, however, that it would not do any good to “break up” these challenges every few minutes— the wolves had to try to work it out on their own. Obviously, we needed to ensure that no animal got seriously injured or killed, so the decision was made to close the viewing gazebo for a short period of time while we continued to monitor the group.
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(Pictured above, dominance and submission displays.) |
We are hopeful that things will work themselves out, although it may take days, weeks, or even months. We are going to do continual observations during daylight hours and will make the management decision to leave or remove animals based on our daily observations.
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