wolfparkinterns

[wolfparkinterns]

6 month old wolf at Wolf Park Indiana by Christi Sabin

[wolfparkinterns]

By C. Love

[wolfparkinterns]

For the 1 year anniversary of Renki's amputation surgery, the staff and volunteers got together and got him some special scrambled eggs 🍳 Here's to many more years with our favorite tripod!

[wolfparkinterns]

Meet Alawa, the laziest howler ever known

Watch an even worse example here

[wolfparkinterns]

The wolves at Wolf Park Indiana were given paint as a form of enrichment and as a fundraiser to make “original wolf art”. Most of the wolves were happy to step in the paint for a piece of hot dog and make nice paw prints on a page, but this guy decided rolling in it was way more fun.

Picture by C. Love

[wolfparkinterns]

Yes the staff are really good at reading the wolves! And most of our wolves are used to larger groups since we do photo seminars but usually for sponsor visits it'll be 1-3 people in with 2 staff members. And also a very good point about wild wolves!

How should I act around a socialized wolf? I've seen the wolves at Wolf Park, but behind a fence. How should I act around a wolf with no fence between us?

That’s all depending on where you are! If you were to meet one of our wolves in the enclosure you would go through a safety orientation and the staff would let you know how to interact. Most other places where you can meet socialized wolves probably have similar protocols. But basically you would let the animal come to you and you would not try to reach out and pet it or hug it unless staff says it is ok. They will also let you know when it is ok to kneel down and actually touch the wolf or to stop touching the wolf.

[wolfparkinterns]

How should I act around a socialized wolf? I've seen the wolves at Wolf Park, but behind a fence. How should I act around a wolf with no fence between us?

That’s all depending on where you are! If you were to meet one of our wolves in the enclosure you would go through a safety orientation and the staff would let you know how to interact. Most other places where you can meet socialized wolves probably have similar protocols. But basically you would let the animal come to you and you would not try to reach out and pet it or hug it unless staff says it is ok. They will also let you know when it is ok to kneel down and actually touch the wolf or to stop touching the wolf.

[wolfparkinterns]

Wolf Park in the media: Inside the Animal Mind

Anyone interested in the sort of research Wolf Park participates in? We had the very exciting opportunity a few years ago to be a part of BBC’s Inside the Animal Mind. A fascinating series about animal cognition.

While we recommend watching the whole documentary (because animal cognition is interesting and awesome!) here’s some parts our wolves feature in:

At 17:13 the presenter is walking in the main enclosure with Dana and Monty. Then we see Dharma (sadly passed away), Wotan and Wolfgang and then Bicho in a log. Then at 17:54 the presenter and Dana howl with Dharma and then we get a look at Kanti swimming across Turtle Lake.

At about 18:53 we see a gorgeous shot of Fiona up close. Then the presenter puts down a perfume that the two wolves, Dharma and Wolfgang, scent roll in. The umwelt (how they experience the world) of wolves is mostly based in smell and we used to use this same trick to get the wolves to roll in fly spray to protect them from flies.

And then you see Fiona, Kanti and Bicho at about 24:15 and Fiona (the presenter calls her Fi, which is adorable) participates in the finger pointing test. It's a really interesting experiment about how wolves differ to dogs!

[wolfparkinterns]

Hello everyone! I’m a new mod here so please feel free to ask me any questions! I will do my best to answer any canid curiousities!

[wolfparkinterns]

Wolfgang enjoying a evening meal of deer ribs.

All our wolves are fed roadkill deer that are very simply butchered and thrown into enclosures. By feeding them this diet they’re able to exhibit natural feeding behaviors and exercise their head and jaw muscles when they chew through the hide and fur. The fur also acts as a natural teeth cleaner, the abrasive action keeps our wolves’ teeth shiny and clean.

Come on out to our Feeding Demonstrations on Sundays where we will often give the main pack a small carcass to demonstrate natural feeding behaviors and social dynamics.

[wolfparkinterns]

Hello Renki! Our resident Tripod Wolf is doing super well! 

[wolfparkinterns]

Kanti at the lake after telling off his brother.

[wolfparkinterns]

We don’t just have wolves at Wolf Park! We also have bison. This is Wonky, called that because of her mismatched horns. We currently have kids camps out and they’re getting some great bison encounter opportunities where they feed our bison out of a truck in the field.

The bison are starting to get more confident with each visit and are also beginning to allow the calves to approach!

[wolfparkinterns]

Bicho in his summer coat. 

Did you know wolves are have two layers of fur? They have an insulative wool layer on the bottom and thick guard hairs on the top to protect that lower layer from getting wet. In the summer, the wolves shed this lower layer out and the guard hairs also tend to thin out a bit. It makes our wolves look very different and guests often ask if they’ve lost weight. But really, it’s just the fur! All our animals are at healthy weights.

[wolfparkinterns]

Some classic examples of ritualised aggression interactions in the main pack, mostly between Kanti and Bicho. In these high arousal moments you will hear a lot of growling and snarling from Kanti paired with posturing and muzzle grabs (sometimes hard, if Kanti is over threshold) as well as pinning, mounting and agonistic puckers. Bicho will display exaggerated pawing, licking and whining. A lot of the times Bicho is the one who initiates this and often will elicit these responses from Kanti.

Why he does this is unclear. There has been many times where Bicho has pawed Kanti in the face and caught his nail on his mouth, which makes Kanti retaliate. 

Behaviorally, these two are very interesting to watch.

[wolfparkinterns]

A final tribute to Wolf Park and the incredible animals that live there.

[wolfparkinterns]

Here’s one of the awesome livestreams Chriag Patel, an amazing positive reinforcement trainer, did while out for a walk with our grey foxes. Hunter absolutely adored him and loved working with him. I really recommend you guys check this video out, it’s got some great advice for training and how important free choice is in animal training, especially with skittish animals like foxes.

If you’re interested in supporting Grey Haven, our planned fox enclosure expansion check out this link here: http://shop.wolfpark.org/product/grey-haven-tshirt/