Wolf Park "Pupdate" 2004

This morning Erin was seen investigating the island, "traditional" denning site of Wolf Park wolves. She came over when we went in to investigate, and greeted briefly, but seemed distracted (and muddy) and went back to the island almost immediately and began digging some more. She is still "wide" -- no pups yet -- but she is no longer just lounging around on the grass with the boys and appears to be making last-minute preparations. Any day now!
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/12/04

Erin was seen wandering around this morning but entered the den in the morning and has not been seen since. Some staff entered the enclosure in the afternoon (with half a mind to swim over to the island and "ask" Erin what she was up to) but decided, after some conversation, that: a) they did not want to swim in the icy cold water if they really didn't have to, and b) since Erin had not come out even though humans had been talking in the enclosure for quite some time, she probably had puppies in there, and c) perhaps she would like to be left alone. :) (Erin is a fierce den guarder -- and well she should be.) We will go in and attempt to confirm "puppy status" tomorrow -- in the meantime, there's a high likelihood that she has given birth. Chetan and Tristan both went back and forth on and off the island, sometimes carrying food "offerings", through most of the day.
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/13/04

Erin has not been seen at all today; it is a blustery day so it is good that she is staying inside the den with the presumed pups, who need to be kept warm as they cannot regulate their own body heat. Chetan was seen approaching the den three times; he left, but he did so casually, and was not driven off by an angry Erin. We still have not gotten close enough to confirm the presence of puppies -- we will try again tomorrow, when it is (again) supposed to be warmer, or at least less windy.
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/14/04

Erin actually exited the den once this morning for a bathroom break, so everyone got an opportunity to see that she is alive and well. She immediately popped back into the den again, and remained there all afternoon. Since it was finally non-weathery enough to mount an expedition today, we made a tentative foray onto the island to see what we could see and make sure everything was going well. Mostly, we hoped to confirm the presence of pups through hearing puppy squeaks, but we never got close enough to the den. Erin did not leave the den when we called for her, but did come out when two staff members made it to the island. Erin was not pleased to see us, even though the staff members had brought large calf legs with them as "peace offerings". Erin made it very clear that she was not thrilled to have visitors (although she did grab one of the legs and run off with it) and made sure we were making clear "leaving" movements before disappearing back down into the den.

Last year, Erin's pups did not survive; probably at least partly because she was spending so much time outside of the den, fence fighting with Marion (and other wolves) and watching ongoing construction. This year she is exhibiting exemplary mothering instincts, staying with her pups almost 24 hours a day. We are happy to encourage her in this endeavor and will not be bothering her again until we pull the pups for hand-raising on (probably) Thursday the 22nd.
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/16/04

Not much is actually happening on the puppy front at this point, but we're checking in with you guys so you know everything is still OK and going as normally as anything at Wolf Park ever does. :) Erin was seen yesterday rallying with the boys briefly but she's been primarily firmly planted in the den -- and this is a good thing, as it means she's being an excellent mother and caring for her babies properly. All is looking good!
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/17/04

Erin took a couple of metaphorical "cigarette breaks" this morning, coming out of the for some brief interaction with the boys and some fresh air, grooming herself, wandering back to check the den, then wandering around some more. This is normal; healthy pups can be left on their own for surprisingly long periods of time, especially when the weather is warm (as it has been today).
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/20/04

During an Alpha Pack howl and rally over at Eastlake today, Erin came out to fence-fight. She was covered in dried mud, but looked good and healthy and despite the rain we have had today, the den must still be quite dry.
 
PUPPY UPDATE 4/22/04

Today we finally pulled Erin's puppies. Yea! There are two boys and two girls.

For those who are wondering how we do this, it is pretty simple. We first went over to Eastlake and leashed Deneb who was in the big back pen and walked her over to a holding pen. In doing so Chetan and Tristan got all excited and began running up and down along the fence. Nobody was making much noise, but somehow Erin sensed that something interesting was happening and she quickly joined them. It was simply a matter of opening up the two gates which connect the main enclosure to the big back Eastlake pen and all three ran through so they could fence fight with the Pillow Pack and in the distance, the Alpha Pack. Separating Erin from her pups was very, very easy indeed.

We then went into the main pack enclosure and headed for the island where Erin had her den. To get to the island you either have to cross the rickety partially sunken very bouncy and unstable logs (fine for wolves, but a tad bit unstable for us humans), or simply wade through cold muddy water...

Tom O'Dowd came out today to video tape the puppy extraction and he just waded through the water. I took the trickier route, but managed to only get my feet wet where the logs dip below the water. Tom carried my camera across just in case I fell in...

Dana then followed and made it across without a hitch. Then Alicia tried the log and well, ended up sitting on the log in the low spot. :-) Most folks did not even try to cross, but we ended up with 7 people on the island.

Dana, the smallest of us humans, was the one who got to go down into the den. It was fairly dry despite the recent rains -- which was good. One by one she handed pups to Alicia who handed a couple off to Pam. The pups were very relaxed and quiet. We often make sure the puppies are kept together so they do not cry out a lost call, but these pups were just perfectly fine being held by people. They snuggled and even fell asleep while being held. I remember how crabby and fussy and even growling Chinookling pups were when first pulled, but Tristan/Erin puppies are about as far removed from Chinooklings as wolves can get ;-)

After all the puppies were collected, we found Erin had two boys and two girls, which is a pretty average litter.

Heading back off the island all but two folks waded through the water -- mostly for safety sake for the puppies and cameras.

After everybody was out of the enclosure, Pat, John and I opened up the two gates and let the Happy Pack back in the main enclosure. All three wolves ran right through and all three then ran up and down along the fence to fence-fight more with the Alpha Pack located several enclosures away.

Eventually, Erin did check out the den, but she did not seem terribly upset and in a few days she should be back to her normal self. Wolves adapt quickly to losing pups and the small amount of stress on the mother is a very small price to pay for a lifetime of happy socialized wolves.

Back in the puppy room, all four puppies quickly settled in. The pups were weighed (about two pounds each -- Erin was doing a very good job) and measured, about 34cm each, and tonight we will even start a photo series of a pup against a grid so that we can document it's growth in detail.

The pups have been given their names. The two males are Ruedi and Renki and the two girls are Ayla and Kailani. Erich named the boys while the Interns named the girls.

Today Ayla wiggled her ears at the sound of Pam's voice, but the ear canal is still closed. They can hear before their ears fully open, but they can't hear terribly well. All their eyes are now open and two have stared teething.

Their toenails are quite sharp and to help save sensitive human skin, they had their first nail trimming.

All four can now climb onto the mattress without help. It is about a six inch climb which is not bad for two pound puppies.

Ayla	Kailani
Ruedi	Renki

Since there are folks who want to adopt the puppies already, I needed to get photos for their certificates. The only problem is that they are so young, that they are not really good at posing so I had Peggy and Pam each old up one of the girls (the boys were sleeping) and well, these are cute, but not quite what I had in mind... Oh well, I will figure something out.

For those who are curious, I was able to get the meanings of their names. Ayla is named after the main character of Clan of the Cave Bear. Kailani is Hawaiian for sea and sky. Ruedi is named in honor of Rudolph Schenkel while Renki is named after Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt. I'm not sure how that last one works out ;-)

It is still quite difficult to tell the puppies apart in photos, but mostly I just keep notes and so most of the photos I post I have notes for. Ideally, all four are in the photo and that removes any uncertainty ;-)

After some photos inside (I forgot my Canon flash, but my Nikon one was in the next room so after some fiddling I found I could use it on my Canon) we took the boys outside and I got vertical shots of them for sponsor certificates. The pups are just too difficult to photograph inside and they are too young to be outside, so we will have to just be happy with photos of puppies held up by Pam and Peggy ;-)

Today the pups got their first meat meal. What we do is mix some Nebraska Brand ground dead thing with their regular formula. Peggy tried first offering them a little of the meat by hand, but they are so used to being fed by a bottle this way, that all they did was search for the bottle. However, when the meal was put in a puppy feeding pan and placed on the floor, they 'knew' exactly what to do and scarfed it up in a matter of seconds. The meal was a big hit among the pups ;-)

Kailani	Ruedi

It was a very nice warm and sunny day today. It was also not windy. It was a near perfect day in fact. It was so nice that Peggy agreed to take the pups out and let them explore the garden a bit outside the nursery.

Since it was sunny, and the pups would quickly get too hot plus I do not like harsh shadows, I opted for a nice shady spot for them to venture on their first day out. It was great. Each of the pups seemed to enjoy the experience. Each in turn spent a lot of time sniffing, but Kailani did get stuck a bit in tall grass and had to be 'rescued' by Peggy.

Well, now I have some very nice photos to work with for the Puppy Sponsor Certificates! Ruedi turned out to not be very photogenic today where Kailani was the star. I took well over 100 photos of them in the garden and I will post a dozen or so on www.wolfphotography.com ASAP.

We will have to do this more often. Puppies in a natural setting make for much nicer photos than puppies in a puppy room ;-)

Now the pups are outside nearly all day -- at least when the weather is nice. It is a good time to come out to Wolf Park and see wolf pups!

Today I took photos of the puppies first deer carcass. I even got sound of them growling over food! My camera has an option to record up to 30 seconds of sound for taking notes and I just realized this would be fun to use to get some puppy noises ;-)

The pups were fed a fetal faun. We sometimes get these when the mother is hit and killed by a car. These are great to feed to puppies since they are easy for them to handle.

Today the pups received their first vaccinations. Unfortunately, the vet arrived early and nobody bothered to give me a call so I missed taking photos. Oh well. The pups did well and I did not hear of any health issues so things went OK. One of the Interns, Tracey McSherry from Scotland, did take some photographs with a film camera and thanks to Peggy rushing the film in to a one hour lab, I was able to scan a photo of a puppy getting vaccinated.

What we do is have a familiar person, in this case Peggy, holding the pup and distracting it while the vet sticks in the needle. We do much the same with the adult wolves, except another staff member usually does the sticking, and the wolves rarely even take notice.

The pups had two firsts today. In the morning they had their first leash lessons then later in the afternoon they received their first swimming pool.

We train the wolves to walk on leashes because that is a wonderful management tool when you want to move wolves (which we do all the time). They also love going out on walks so it is beneficial for both wolves and their handlers.

We start when they are young, just a bit more than 5 weeks old. Each pup in tern had a light cord gently tied around its neck and was carried over to some tall grass and allowed to explore. The purpose of this first leash lesson is to simply get them used to having something around their neck and begin to have them associate the leash with going out and exploring new areas. Renki was a bit shy about this, but the other three took right to having fun!

Later in the afternoon the pups got their first pool. Wolves love water, especially pups. They have been splashing in their water dish for some weeks now and this pool was a big hit!

After we closed to the public, we shifted some wolves around at Eastlake so the pups could be brought over to explore the enclosure which was housing the Alpha Pack. This is their first time in a real wolf enclosure, one of the quarter acre pens. They pretty much moved right in finding a nice comfortable spot under one of the wooden shelters.

After they had been in there a half hour or so, Gale and I went down and leashed Karin and brought her up to visit pups. In the past Karin wanted to be in with pups about five minutes or so. Wolf Park wolves are often quite obnoxious and do things like pull tails and grab mouthfuls of fur. They also tend to food beg extensively and overall just be pests. Well these pups were about as mellow as we have ever seen.

Once Karin spotted them, she very gentle and submissively approached them and then just laid down. The pups each in turn approached and submitted and were quite gentle with her in return. In all, they spent about an hour together and Karin ended up under the shelter snuggling with puppies. I managed to get a photo through the 'den' entrance and was really glad I have and IS lens for 1/40 sec hand held with a 400mm lens is virtually impossible without IS... In all I took over 500 photos. Picking picday photos was not easy!

Some rain was approaching so we managed to get a leash around Karin's neck and Pat coaxed her back home to quite a greeting by Apollo. Alyeska also wanted to sniff all the puppy smells on her fur, but Apollo would have none of it and guarded her quite effectively. Karin, on the other hand, was completely submissive and full of endorphans. She even submissively urinated for Apollo!

Today was vet day! This morning Dr. Zeigler came out to adjust Deneb's back (Pat forgot to call me so no photos). Later in the last afternoon, Ruedi went in to be X-rayed due to persistent limping.

Fortunately the puppies are very good about riding in cars and seeing the vet so taking them there has not been a problem for them at all. They are very well socialized and very good puppies.

So, you may wonder how one takes X-rays of a wolf pup? Well, if they are well socialized it is pretty easy. We just had familiar people actually work with the awake puppy, namely Peggy held Ruedi while Pat held the mask supplying isoflourine. Ruedi was relaxed the entire time and just gradually fell asleep -- and as far as we could tell he was totally relaxed and carefree about the whole thing.

Dr. Julia Becker, who is our regular vet, did all the work. I just sat back and took photos. I took photos of Ruedi being set up on the X-ray table (I stepped out for the actual X-rays) and then I took photos of the results -- which will be sent off to a specialist since assessing young pup X-rays is quite the speciality.

Once off the Isoflourine, Ruedi gently woke up with only Peggy handling him so he would not become alarmed. He was groggy, but remained quite content and just seemed to want to sleep. I'm sure his tongue felt funny though ;-)

Dr. Becker brought out an X-ray taken of Alyeska last year when he went in for urinary problems. Just to see what his hip's looked like he also had an X-ray done of his hips and at 9 years old his hips looked better than any dog they have seen. Alyeska has three grandparents out of the wild and is very soundly built. They occassionally use this image to show people with dogs who have bad hips, what perfect hips look like.

It will probably be next week before we know anything definitive about Ruedi. Meanwhile Alyeska's problem totally cleared up last year and he remains in tip top shape, especially those hips!

It has been determined that the puppies have some kind of metabolic bone issues and so today all four puppies went to get their legs X-rayed. Since we knew that Ruedi had some calcium deficiencies, we wanted to test them all. The girls look pretty good, but although Ruedi has shown significant improvement, we still need to continue watching the boys.

This time we did things a bit differently, we just held puppies as they were X-rayed. That was pretty cool and only Kailani acted upset, but with a little patience, and time to examine the X-ray table, she was fine. Pat, a familiar person, held the puppies while Dr. Becker, also a familiar person to the puppies, did the X-rays while the puppy moms, held them and keep those who were in line waiting entertained ;-)

Kailani & Renki Enjoy a Watermelon Ruedi & Ayla Enjoy a Watermelon

Today was our great Watermelon for Wolves event. This went very well. Even though rain was predicted for the day, it held off until after the ceremonies.

This was the pups first taste of melon and they thought they were mighty tasty. We also put various dog treats in them including something called "Pupcorn" ... whatever that is, and it was a big hit.

Today we had fun. Once a week we try to get an adult wolf in with the pups to further their socialization with their own species -- basically getting them used to adult wolves. We did not get a chance to do this last week, but we made up for that today!

First we fed the Happies. Today was not a feeding day (they typically get fed Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday) but Dr. Klinghammer wanted to make sure that Chetan had some food in his stomach to feed pups as they would surly food beg from him. Of course we had to feed all three. No complaints from the pack there!

Chetan was the chosen wolf since he is easy to work with and not likely to be a problem with others in the enclosure as he does not have a tendancy to guard pups.

He was a bit reluctant to even leave the enclosure, but Gale and I managed to coax him out. This was somewhat strange because he is usually quite eager to go out for wolf bison demos and such.

Once out on leash he was fine and he eagerly went into the puppy enclosure, but once the pups started mobbing him he was quite uncomfortable and ran back down to the gate to be let out. Oh well, he was OK one on one, but he was not comfortable with a whole mob of pups.

We were just going to do Chetan, but since the meeting was so short, we decided to bring Tristan.

Chetan Meets Puppy Renki	Tristan Meets Pups
Erin Meets Pups	Got Your Tail!
Renki Leaps at Erin	Erin Puppy Pile

Tristan was not a problem getting in the airlock and he pulled all the way to see pups. However, like Chetan, he quickly became overwhelmed with obnoxious puppies, but he did fare a bit better and spent quite a lot longer in with them before we took him out. But while Chetan did regurgitate some food for them, I do not remember seeing Tristan offer any food. Tristan did seem a lot more comfortable with the puppies.

Since the first two meetings were short and for the most part went well, at least from the pups perspective, we decided to try Erin. Erin has not been with the pups since we pulled them (and of course Tristan and Chetan had never had contact before since Erin was so protective of the den).

Like Tristan, Erin was quite eager to go out and readily pulled all the way down to the puppy pen. Once in with them things were quite different. She was much more relaxed and got right down on her belly. The pups covered her.

However, after Kailani and Renki started to pull fur off her tail, she began to run around with all four chasing her. But, unlike the males, Erin really seemed to enjoy them and outside a few 'words' with biting puppies, she was very interested in interacting and as far as we could tell, she did remember them. That is always hard to tell since wolves tend to like pups, but her behavior was at least a lot more positive, much like Karin on her meeting over a month ago.

Unfortunately, Kailani eventually decided that Erin was 'scary' and there were several instances where Erin was chasing her around, but as far as we could see, it was to try to appease her. On the other paw, the rest became more and more relaxed with their mother and Erin ended up spending about 90 minutes with them. We kept offering to take her out, but outside some eagerness to fence-fight with Marion, she was not interested in leaving.

We are not too worried about Kailani. We have had pups much worse than her and she should settle down after the next few meetings.

Well, it was getting late and Erin would not go up to anybody and she would not go into the airlock. Eventually, I just sat down with the pups and coaxed her over -- getting Erin relaxed enough to just roll over and let me interact with her and the pups together.

Of course the first time I did this, I had to back away and take some photos. However, it was still getting late and the rest of the staff were making intention movements to go home, so I got Erin to lay down again and I easily leashed her.

Now leashing Erin did not mean I could just walk her out. She was not going anywhere. Then the pups, realizing she was restrained, began to glom on and bite at her.

The solution was pretty simple. I just did something I often do with the wolves under more normal situations -- something I have put, so to speak, in my handling tool box to deal with somewhat unusual situations such as this. I just picked Erin up and carried her out, leash and all.

Erin's reaction was to go totally limp. I think the endorphans helped. BTW, she has also put on weight! I'm guessing about 85 pounds. Once in the airlock she was a bit wide eyed, but walked home to tell the boys all about it. ;-)

The pups got their booster shots today. They also were weighed. Kailani and Ruedi are 29 pounds, Ayla is 30 pounds and Renki is 32 pounds.

The pups got their booster shots today. They also were weighed and the females got spayed, well, half spayed. We sterilize rather than neuter to maintain proper behavior in the wolves so they got to keep their ovaries. The boys were also going to get vasectomies, but the vet felt he better wait until they are a bit more developed so as to not make a mistake and accidentally castrate them. The pups and Tristan are all going to be stabilized because as Dr. Baker says, family trees should branch ;-) Meanwhile, Kailani is about 35 pounds, Ayla is 52 pounds, Ruedi is 50 and Renki is 55 pounds. Kailani is a tiny thing, but so was her grandmother.

Jeanette, Andrew and Gale Carry Pups to the Car	Kailani Looking Out the Window
Kailani Running in the Turtle Lake Enclosure	Tristan and a Submitting Kailani
Renki & Ayla Greet and Submit to Erin	Erin and Tristan Running After Ruedi

     The big reunion worked out great. We first locked Tristan and Erin up in the holding pen. We tried for Chetan as well, but since he usually goes underground when it is warm, we had to coax him out. Gale, Chetan and I made it just past the dam when a huge horsefly chased him back around. Since he is pretty much a non-issue, and was totally an non issue today for he was underground all afternoon in one of the dens, we did not feel it necessary to worry about him at all. We did not want to have the adult wolves right at the gate when we brought in the pups because Kailani can be a bit scared of adult wolves.

To get the pups over, they were all carried over to Jeanette's SUV and driven -- each pup held by a handler. They were then carried into the airlock and, well, that was just about it.

Once the pups explored for a few minutes, Tristan and Erin were let out of the holding pen. Both adults did not realize at first that we brought them puppies, but as soon as they noticed, they trotted over to greet them.

It was a great reunion with lots of submitting and puppy interactions. Tristan was a lot happier with the pups in the big pen where he was on familiar ground and they were distracted with 1,000,000 and one other things (such as scent rolling in dead fish and other pleasant things). Kailani was even a lot more calm and relaxed than she was over at Eastlake. This is the biggest area they have had to run around and the most water to splash in that they have had access too. It was very, very hot and humid and all four pups spent a lot of time in the pond.

It was also pretty sunny. I do not like the harsh shadows with sunny afternoons, and the wolves, well, they spent much of the time behind the big cottonwood tree in the shade where the ground is still pretty much dirt following the June flooding. I took photos there, but they are not all that great.

Well, it is very nice to finally have a big pack again. Seven wolves will be great for the upcomming Photography Seminars I have scheduled for the fall!

Finally, we came up with a litter name. Every litter ends up with a litter name. Something which describes them in a unique way. "Grass Piranhas"; "Land Sharks" and the like have been a few past names, but these pups really have not lived up to that description at all. Finally, just the other day as they reach their 5th month, I came up with the idea of calling them the Lorises, slow lorises to be exact. ;-)

Pat found this description of a Slow Loris: A plumper, shorter-limbed animal than its relative the slender loris, the slow loris is, however, similar in its habits. It spends the day sleeping up in a tree, its body rolled into a tight ball. At night, it feeds in the trees on insects, bird's eggs, small birds and shoots and fruit, seldom coming down to the ground. A slow, but accomplished, climber, its hands and feet are strong and capable of grasping tightly. It can even hang by its feet. The thumb and great toe are opposable to the other digits. Breeding takes place at any time of year, and 1 young, sometimes 2, is born after a gestation of 193 days. Slow lorises are thought to live in family groups.