The wolf pups rescued from the Funny River Fire are establishing their pack in Minnesota.
The five wolves have been at the Minnesota Zoo since July 15, 2014; Zoologist Laurie Trechsel said the exhibit was designed for a wolf pack but the zoo didn’t have luck creating a pack before the pups arrived.
Trechsel: “So when your pups came it was great because we could have a pack. I don’t know if you’re familiar with how the wolf social behavior is but it’s very difficult to put most animals of different packs together without having issues, fights and that sort of thing. So when you can have a family like this, wolf pups that are all together, that grow up together there’s more likely a chance that they’ll get along as they get older and you won’t have the aggression issues.”
The females are now around 70 pounds and males are up to 80 pounds and still growing, both in stature and in their roles in the pack.
Trechsel: “As they’re getting older we’re seeing Stebbins, he’s kind of coming out as one of the alphas, that could change. It’s play behavior right now, we’re seeing one always kind of dominates the others, you see submission going on, so you can kind of tell who’s going to become the top dog basically which is what you want, that’s the natural order of pack behavior and once you have that and it’s established then everybody kind of knows their position.”
Trechsel said the wolves have been spayed an neutered in order to prevent inbreeding and are in great all around health.
When the orphaned pups were found last year, the firefighter crew named them Gannett, Hooper, Husila, Stebbins and X-Ray after the firefighters’ hometowns and the fire crew who rescued them.
