Wolf Park is supported by people like you, private individuals who care, people who are interested in wolves, who love wolves, and want to help preserve them. Wolf Park is not supported by Government grants, state or federal money.   Our Wolf Sponsorship Program is the most important means of support we have. The program allows us to support our wolves, our educational programs and our research into wolf social behavior. If you are not already a sponsor, please consider supporting a wolf like Apollo. Thank you.

Apollo was born to Altair and Chinook, the alpha wolves at the time, on April 16, 1995. Apollo was the biggest in his litter - and we hoped he would grow as large as Chinook, which he came quite close to doing. His brothers were donated later that summer to Animal Ark in Reno, Nevada and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon. However, Karin also had a litter of pups that year, from which we kept Chetan, Apollo's nephew. But as far as he was concerned, Chetan was Apollo's brother.

      When the puppies were about two weeks old, we decorated the adjoining enclosure where Vega was living with treats of all kinds (Vega was of course placed in another pen for this) and when the gates were opened, the entire pack, including Altair, readily ran in all excited and jubilant at the prospect of exploring and searching for goodies. The staff then went into the main enclosure, and deftly and quietly removed Altair's pups. When done this way, there seems to be little to no stress on mom or the rest of the pack. The benefits of hand raising greatly outweigh the costs to the wolves.

      Puppy mother Karin Bloch characterized Altair's pups as little pigs - they continually messed in their bedding -- and on foster parents for the first couple of weeks. We got into the habit of immediately stimulating them - over the wastebasket - when we'd pick one up to cuddle or give a bottle. Eventually this passed.

      The pups were started on Nebraska Brand Carnivore Chow when they were about twenty one days old, and took to the meat with alacrity. Unlike some litters of pups, they did not long care to have formula even in a bowl or mixed with their meat. Once they discovered that they are little carnivores, there was no going back!

      Each year the pups get some access to adult wolves and some dogs. The '95 pups got to meet Aunt Ursa, Karin, then a female yearling, Aurora, a seven year old neotenous wolf with very strong parental behavior and a large supply of patience, and the yearling males Alyeska and Orca. Orca was very solicitous of the pups and fed them regurgitated meat several times. Apollo distinguished himself by yanking Orca by the tail. The pups also met Marco, a five month old German Shepherd, and Cassie, a Chihuahua.

      Young Apollo was definitely a Chinookling. Like his father he tended to be mouthy, and easily over stimulated, ever prone to screaming and pinching. One way of finessing his mouthiness was give him something to hold in his mouth that he liked -- but didn't like enough to try to guard against you. A Leatherman tool, with its leather sheath has served as a pup pacifier for several years and Apollo liked to mouth it gently while his face or tummy or toes or tail was handled. Doing this gave us the opportunity to reward him for desirable behavior, in stead of being restricted to squelching undesirable behavior.

      He also liked to go for walks on a leash, but he hated to be bored, or excessively hot or fatigued by these excursions. Having apparently decided it is the humans' business to make sure that his outings are uniformly delightful, he indulged in trenchant screaming and pinching if they were not. I surmised that one way out of this was to walk him in the company of an adult, to whom he could submit and follow. This turned out to be a successful way to fix his intolerance for restraint or boredom.

      The big day in Apollo's summer had to be August 16th -- the Day of Jubilee when the pups were returned to the pack to live. For the first few hours the adults and yearlings followed the pups around as the pups explored, submitted and food begged. The current alphas, Chinook and Altair, were tolerant. Altair was very attentive to their safety though she did not care to be used a jungle gym or teething ring, thank you. She supervised their interactions with other pack members and once smilingly inserted herself between Alyeska-dear and the puppies. Kiri, perhaps reacting to a small replica of himself, was not as madly enamored of these pups as of last year's. Orca was fascinated and followed the pups as if they were magnetic, but growled if they tried to approach him. Karin was delighted - for one day. After that she acted irritable with the pups, like an immature teenage mother who thinks her child is more of a pest than a treasure once the novelty is over.

      Luckily the pups had Uncle AL the Wolf Park Pal. Though AL now knows he is not furniture, he did sometimes let the pups nap using him as a pillow; he played with them and sometimes fed them by regurgitating.

      Apollo, in his fluffy, stand off coat, so typical of pups in their first winter, was quite the wide load. He acquired the nickname Hairy Pear. The reason for this appellation was ap-pear-ant if you stood behind him when he sat down, silhouetted against snow.

      All through the fall he remained a mouthy Chinookling, albeit a dilute version of brattiness compared with his sire, or even his big Brother Kiri. At an age when Kiri went through a phase of squeezing peoples' calves as they left the enclosure, acquiring the nickname "Black Jaws of Death," Apollo was also squeezing people, but more gently - he was only called "The Baby Teeth of Death." We fell back on Bitter Apple - a no-chew spray - to make us taste bad. (There seems to be a hidden Far Side cartoon, involving Charlie the Tuna in that last sentence somewhere. Apollo doesn't bite people that taste bad, he bites people with bad taste?)

      Getting back to nicknames, I was puzzled by a persistent typo whenever I typed up notes about him - his name came out "Apollow" instead of Apollo. Then one day, while my fingers were doing their walking on the keyboard, I felt them do something odd with his name. There on the screen was "Apillow." My subconscious, having broken through to my conscious with this important announcement that, deep down, I view Apollo as a pillow, has stopped suborning my fingers into this particular typo.

      Apollo also spent a busy fall training humans. He and his nephew Chetan have been taught to get on the spools and walk on the ramps in the holding pen when cued. (They already knew how to do such things when they wanted to.) Apollo, though he can jump onto the decks and spools, prefers being boosted onto them if there is a human handy. He stands on his hind legs and bellys up to a spool, or hut or deck, looking expectant. That is the cue for one of the humans to step up and oof and puff and lift Apollo's wide, furry bottom onto the hut or spool or deck.

Apollo's first breeding season.

      Neither puppy mated, but they both showed a lot of interest in Altair and Karin as well as some rudimentary theoretical understanding of what was going on. On the evening of January 29, Chetan and Apollo tried several times to mount Karin. Chinook and Altair came over and threatened Chetan and Karin. Apollo, Chetan, and Kiri had all been sort of wrestling Karin. Then they lost interest, except Apollo started riding up and trying to mount her again. He received a ritualized attack by Chinook for this.. He got all silly and invited chase. Chetan obliged, chasing and hip slamming him. Karin ran down after them into the slough with an intent look on her little pointy face, as if wanting to get in a good bite or two... Apollo was chased by Chetan in and around the slough willows while Karin and Orca tried to head him off and slam him. Chinook still watched, but Altair lost interest about the time that Chinook was losing his temper.

      It wasn't all mating attempts interspersed with aggressive interactions, though. Early one February morning Apollo pounced on something and was moving it around with both forepaws on it at the same time, interspersed with incredible pronks and courbettes (arching leaps as if going over a high hurdle only nothing is there, and jumping straight up with the body vertical, like a sort of mammalian bottle rocket) - he was bouncing back and forth and in and out and side to side like a ferret. Oh, to video tape this and dub in some Celtic jig music!

      On the afternoon of February 16 Apollo fell through the ice on the pond. He fished himself out okay, but was all silly and ran rooty kazooty with Chetan chasing him. Chetan chased him out onto the pond and Apollo "wiped out" and slid several yards on his side. He got up and went running off again, and he wrestled with Chetan.

      Three minutes later, Chetan and Apollo both ran out onto the ice at a gallop and they both "wiped out" and slid several feet. Chetan got up and then found himself sliding on his head trying to keep his balance.

      In 1996 we used Apollo and Chetan a lot during the year's wolf bison demonstrations. That is less to their credit as hunters than because we had four calves who all showed a distressing disinclination to stay near their mothers, or other adults, when there were wolves about. We were going to have to give them a lesson in some of the realities of life without putting them at too grave a risk. In their roles of "Clueless and Bewildered" Chetan and Pillow have been instrumental in giving the calves a chance to learn about wolves. Of course we don't want the calves to think that all wolves are clueless and bewildered so once in a while we'd put in one good hunter with our two inept yearlings.

      One family of Apollo's sponsors brought Apollo a huge basted bone. He was lying alone near the fence so we were able to give it right too him. He enjoyed it for a long time before any of the other wolves discovered it. Apollo sought that bone out repeatedly for the next couple of weeks. It was a great hit with all the wolves. The entire pack must have had turns with it. Every so often, though I'd see Apollo with it and it was carried back and forth from one side of the pond to the other in the course of the summer.

      As the fall of 1996 progressed Apollo began inviting the pack to chase him, especially the two new additions to the pack, Seneca and Miska. We noticed Apollo tended to get scared when more than just the pups took him up on the invitation. Then on the weekend of October 19 and 20 he must have invited chase at a particularly inauspicious time. He was chased and mobbed by the pack. Orca had evidently gotten quite aggressively aroused. Apollo came out of the weekend as the pack's new omega instead of its number three male.

      It was very hard on Pillow to be driven away from the others by Orca. For several days Apollo was quite forlorn. If we shut Orca and the others up and went in, Apollo ran over and greeted us frantically. Fortunately for him and for us, since this was hard to watch, the wolves began to ease up on Apollo. We saw him have repeated friendly interactions with everyone except Orca. Karin sought him out and flirted with him a little and though she seems to have given this up and is a bit less friendly she is also less aggressive - unless Orca chases Apollo.

      On several Howl Nights Orca did not come and Apollo got to interact with some of the pack and with us. He loved it. Two nights the pups and Apollo were the only ones to stay for Howl Night. Pillow had a lovely time wrestling his younger brothers and howling with them and us. Usually he does not chorus howl now - probably it would make him too conspicuous.

      In spring the wolves usually mellow out, which we hoped might make things easier for Apollo. From at least mid March 1997 there were hopeful signs.

      From my journal on March 13: "Apollo may have approached Orca just before this. I missed it by seconds if it happened and afterward he behaved as if Orca had personally given him permission to interact because he went right over to his resting little brothers and started wrestling. He even pinned Seneca who kicked and squirmed. Then Apollo, Miska, Chetan and Karen and Seneca rallied among themselves (no howl)."

      All spring Pillow looked for opportunities to greet Altair and his little brothers and Chetan. He was still very frightened of Orca, though he was beginning to try to appease, or hang around the fringes of pack activities even when Orca was there. He liked it very much on those evenings when Orca did not show up for Howl Nights. On such occasions Apollo took part in greeting us and rallying with and wrestling his little brothers with gusto. He even howled a few times. On April 5 Apollo came for Howl Night. He had a very enjoyable few minutes before Orca came back. Apollo lingered too long near the dam and Orca chased him around - we could see him doing power hipslams to Pillow on the other side of the pond. Someone asked why Apollo gets picked on. Gary gave a long answer and a little girl who piped up right after he finished with "Why do they pick on Apollo?"

      During this period Apollo and AL were friends in adversity. Though they are not as closely bonded as Socrates and Kiri, being peripheral and harassed seemed to give them some fellow-feelings for each other. They could compare bites to their rumps. Apollo was less bitten up than AL.

      By May, Apollo had worked his way fully back into the pack and could even be seen trying "obnoxious submission" on a disgruntled Orca. Obnoxious submission involves being persistently and frenetically submissive, to the point of refusing to accept signals from the wolf being submitted to, that it has had quite enough of being submitted to, thank you very much. I have seen wolves use this ploy to displace a higher ranking wolf around the enclosure, some times winding up chasing them ("But Sir or Madam, I haven't finished groveling and abasing myself before you; come back and let me apologize more for existing!") During part of April and much of May, Karin was in a holding pen at East Lake so she could whelp without the danger of Altair invading her den, killing her pups (they would be born too late for Altair to "adopt" them as hers along with her own). Karin was looking for anyone to dominate and had been doing a lot of the actual biting of Apollo's and Alyeska's behinds. If she was near when Orca threatened them they appeared much more frightened.

      So it was with some trepidation that I observed the pack in late May. It had been a big relief to get Karin back in the pack. Altair gave her approval for Karin's return on May 16th, but would this mean more trouble for Apollo and AL?

Continued on next page...

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs © Monty Sloan/Wolf Park Text adopted from Wolf Sponsor Updates and is © Pat Goodmann/Wolf Park For permission to use or for more information about wolf photographs please check with Monty Sloan