By their fourth week of development, the pups become very active. They love to play, staging mock combats between themselves that are accompanied by much youthful growling and controlled biting. When one pup is bitten too hard during these rough-and-tumble games, it whines, whereupon the aggressor usually lets go immediately, undoubtedly knowing that if it does not, a real fight may develop and, in any case, when its own turn comes to feel pain and it cries its own anguish, its sibling may not let go, either. At this stage, too, the puppies are intensely curious and determined to explore their den and its environs, a task that is undertaken with great interest but tempered by infinite caution. If a sight or sound is perceived suddenly, a pup will back away immediately, torn between avid curiosity and an inherent sense of apprehension. Curiosity usually wins out, but it may take a pup considerable time before it actually reaches the object of its interest. In the interval, it moves forward a step or two, backs away, moves forward again, stops, stares, sniffs, and listens. In this way, step by step it approaches, gaining confidence with each advance until it finally reaches its objective, which, if chewable, is immediately grasped and bitten, a procedure that appears to give much pleasure and causes the discharge of copious amounts of saliva, and one that clearly relieves some of the discomfort caused by the budding teeth. At about this time, sibling rivalry, present from birth and manifested by competition for the hind teats (which produce the most milk), begins to intensify as the pups test one another, each seeking to dominate its siblings. Gradually, after many mock fights during which two or more antagonists roll about, using the weight of their bodies to pin down an opponent and their teeth to secure a whine-producing hold, the “pecking order” begins to emerge and what can be termed an “Alpha pup” emerges and is followed in descending order of dominance by its litter mates. Nevertheless, all pups in a pack are themselves subservient to all the adult wolves and will remain so for at least two years, in some cases for their entire lifetimes.
Shawano and Brigit, in as much as they were the only pups in Jim’s mini-pack, were to settle their status relatively quickly, with Shawano, by virtue of his larger size and more determined character, emerging the clear winner. In such a situation, however, when one wolf is male and the other female, both become Alphas even though one of them is slightly more Alpha than the other. It is not unusual for a female wolf to dominate a male, or even for a female to emerge as pack leader, despite the fact that males are usually about 20 percent larger than females. Size is important, of course, but so are determination, intelligence, and aggressiveness.
In any event, by the time Shawano and Brigit were five weeks old, the male pup had emerged as the leader and it was he who claimed the first and choicest bits of meat, although Brigit tried at such times to take his food away by artifice, creeping up to Shawano, pretending to be intimidated by his growls, then lying down near him and slowly inching her way closer and closer to the target. Using such tactics, she managed to sneak the meat away from her mate-to-be quite regularly, often playing with it but not eating it. Eventually Shawano recovered his lost prize, somewhat the worse for wear, and consumed it. But it was not long thereafter that both pups began to eat meat daily; and they started to wean themselves, a process that in a wild state is initiated by the mother when the pups are about thirty-five days old and is usually completed when they are about fifty days old.
Wolf cubs grow rapidly. At one month, they will weigh between five and six pounds and will measure some seventeen inches in length from the root of the tail to the end of the nose, the tail itself measuring about five inches. At ten weeks, a cub will probably weigh between thirty and thirty-five pounds, and at twenty weeks it will have grown to about half the size of the adults and will probably weigh about fifty-five pounds, such rapid development being necessary to prepare the young wolves for the rigorous life of the northern predator, for those pups that survive (and many do not live beyond the third or fourth week after birth) must be ready by August to accompany the hunting pack, learning from the adults as they go and, by late autumn, being expected ‘to become effective members of the pack during hunting forays.
Shawano and Brigit, however, although they developed as rapidly as their wild kin, did not go hunting, their food needs being provided by Jim on a regular basis. By September 1978, the two had become pair-bonded, viewing Jim and Kaye and Scott Stewart as their pack, but yet behaving toward one another like an adult, mated pair, except that they were not yet quite ready for sexual relations.
By mid-February of 1979, however, when they were twenty- two months old, their behaviour was such that Jim believed they were going to mate, a rare event between subordinate animals in an established pack led by two Alphas, but quite usual when a pair of young wolves come together to form their own group.
Jim, eager to film every aspect of wolf courtship and mating, set up a scaffold outside of the enclosure. From there, he hoped to record the action, but, although he spent many lone and cold vigils, movie camera ready, the wolves did not intensify their relationship, and believing that he had misread their intentions, Jim put away his equipment, convinced there would be no pups born in his enclosure that year.
In early March of that same year, Shawano became interested in a raven that flew down and landed on one of the enclosure’s fence-posts. Jim happened to be watching from outside the wire and he noted that bird and wolf stared at one another for some moments. Then Shawano heard something in another direction and, distracted, turned to look. Immediately upon the wolf’s eyes leaving the raven, the large black bird flew down and actually landed on Shawano’s back, causing the almost fully grown, future leader of the pack to jump as though he had received an electric shock. The raven merely touched down on the wolf’s back and immediately afterwards flew up again, but the experience quite unnerved Shawano, who had yet to realize that these big, tough northern birds have enjoyed a special relationship with wolves since time immemorial.
By the end of the first winter of their lives, however, Shawano and Brigit learned to ignore the ravens on those occasions when they were feeding on road-killed deer, or whenever Jim would toss chicken parts into the enclosure, the young wolves knowing by now that if one or the other of them charged at a raven that was intent on stealing some of its food, other birds would swoop down and take the unguarded meat. At the same time, the wolves and the scavenging birds also developed that special communion which is common to the two disparate species, in due course even howling whenever the ravens called. But that was later, after Shawano and Brigit had become adults.
By mid-March of that year, since Jim had not seen any actual mating behaviour between the young wolves, he assumed that Brigit was not pregnant, but in early April he noticed that she had become rather thick in the waist and stomach. Two weeks later he discovered that the wolves had dug a den, and almost simultaneously he saw that Brigit’s mammae were swollen, indicating that she was already producing milk. Had the pair mated after all? His question was answered on May 4, when Brigit gave birth to two black female puppies. All the humans involved with the Ishpeming wolves were astonished. Shawano and Brigit were delighted.
Whereas before the birth of her pups Brigit had displayed very submissive behaviour toward Shawano and the humans in her life, motherhood appeared to make her confident and even assertive. She made it clear to all concerned, including her mate, that the business of giving birth was entirely her own show. So was the responsibility of caring for the two tiny puppies, upon which she lavished attention. Jim and Scott Stewart did manage to crawl into the den to have a look at the newborns, an action that their mother tolerated with thinly veiled hostility. But the father was not allowed to enter the nesting chamber until the wolflings were some two weeks old and already starting to move about within the darkened den.
When Jim first saw the two little wolves in full daylight, he immediately realized that one of them was bigger than the other, showed more confidence, and had already acquired dominance over her sib
ling. At this time, Jim also named the two. The big one he called Denali, which was the name given by the Indians of Alaska to Mount McKinley: it means “the great one.” The smaller cub he christened Siskiwit, a name given to three locations found on Isle Royale, the big island in Lake Superior that lies 48 miles northwest of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Ceded by the British to the Americans in 1783, it was declared a national park in I940, and has since figured prominently in the study of wolves and moose.
As matters turned out, Denali was aptly named. She did, indeed, become “the great one.” Growing rapidly, maintaining her dominance over her exceptionally submissive sister, Denali showed from a very early age that she had that special something which, in time, produces a leader.
Discussing the newborns with psychologists from the university made it clear that no attempt should be made to socialize the two pups, the upbringing of which was left entirely to Brigit and Shawano. Perhaps because he felt the responsibilities of fatherhood, or because he was overprotective of his offspring, Shawano at this time took to nipping the bottoms of psychology students who approached the den too closely, sneakily delivered reprimands that could not possibly be mistaken for real attacks (which would have inflicted serious injuries). Nevertheless, the nips were more than sufficient to discourage the researchers, who thereafter took care to stay at a respectful distance from the den, or from the pups when these played outside, a state of affairs acceptable to Shawano, who thereafter tolerated the scientific voyeurs.
Wolves will nip each other in reprimand, or affectionately; in either case, the bite, delivered by the incisors, causes them no damage and, because of the dense fur and thick hide, elicits little if any pain. But, as Sharon and I can testify from personal experience, when a wolf nips a human during an excess of affectionate zeal, such love-bites can sometimes bring uncontrolled tears to the eyes and they will surely produce purple welts by the next day. Neither of us have been nipped in reprimand, but I am sure that there is little difference between a pinch of love and one of admonition. Nevertheless, I do not propose to prove my point through personal research . . .
As Denali and Siskiwit grew, Brigit was a typical wolf mother. Although she pampered them a lot, she also took care to emphasize her dominant status over them, even though by this time she had again reverted to her former submissive behaviour when dealing with Shawano and humans.
Nevertheless, Brigit, an intelligent wolf not averse to scheming, often got what she wanted from Shawano, as she had as a puppy, by employing calculated deviousness. Nothing illustrates this better than her behaviour during the winter of 1979, when Jim Wuepper threw a deer head to Shawano. Brigit salivated, but did not dare try to take it from her mate by direct means. Instead, she trotted over a small hill, behind which Denali and Siskiwit were resting, and brought the yearlings back with her, standing by while the gangly young wolves dashed up to their tolerant father, who allowed them to take the deer head away from him, a liberty that did not even elicit a mild growl. Brigit must have quite clearly known beforehand that this would be the outcome of her scheme; no sooner had the yearlings dragged the head out of sight of Shawano than their mother took it away from them and kept it for herself!
As the 1980 breeding season approached, Jim noticed that Brigit seemed extremely concerned about maintaining her Alpha status. Up to this time she had been a devoted mother, but now she began to harass her yearling daughters on an almost constant basis, demonstrating by her behaviour that she saw Denali and Siskiwit as rivals, but particularly picking on Denali, who was by now a large wolf of imposing appearance and assured mannerisms. Shawano at first ignored the noisy goings-on, but later he occasionally joined Brigit in her attacks, almost as though seeking to reassure her about her status by approving her harassment of her daughters. By the end of February, however, and presumably because Brigit was no longer in estrus, life among the Ishpeming wolves had returned to its usual tenor. But Brigit did not conceive in 1980, although she and Shawano had mated. No satisfactory explanation for this failure has been found. It is possible that the she-wolf’s great preoccupation with status raised the level of Brigit’s stress to such a degree that it prevented ovulation. This is only a guess, but it is backed by medical and biological evidence, which shows that high levels of stress can prevent conception in human females and in other mammals (just as it can cause males to become impotent).
During the year that followed Brigit’s failure to produce young, the pack continued to strengthen its ties under the leadership of the two Alphas, its day-to-day affairs monitored by psychology students as well as by Jim and Scott. But although the wolves were studied on a regular basis, observations were made from a reasonable distance, to allow the animals to behave in natural ways. Unlike many present-day studies, where the wolves are anaesthetized (usually by being darted) in order to monitor vital functions, to measure endocrine levels, or to examine the animals physically, the pack was not experimentally abused. The wolves were, of course, photographed by still and movie cameras, but picture-taking did not distress them – Shawano and Brigit had been photographed since they were puppies and so did not take alarm when the equipment was displayed, and since their parents showed no concern, Denali and Siskiwit did not react either.
Nevertheless, because they had not been socialized toward people, the two young wolves exhibited all the inherent cautions common to the species when strangers approached the enclosure. Jim and Scott, because they worked with the wolves practically every day, could approach the sisters closely, but neither Denali nor Siskiwit would allow herself to be handled. Nor did Jim and Scott try to do so in any event, for this would have been contrary to the intent of the study.
In late January of 1981, the restlessness that develops in all wolves two to three weeks prior to the breeding season began to show up in the pack. It later became evident that all three females were in estrus. Now Denali began harassing Siskiwit, who, submissive as she was, offered no resistance to her formidable sister. Soon afterwards, during an occasion when Denali was again attacking Siskiwit, Brigit, exerting her Alpha status, interfered, trying to intimidate Denali by defending the smaller female. At this, Denali turned on her mother, hackles raised, teeth bared, and deep threat-growls issuing from her throat. There followed a skirmish that was soon to end in Brigit’s defeat. From that moment on, Denali became the Alpha female of the pack, her mother accepting a very subservient role.
When Shawano also became sexually ready, he unhesitatingly mated with Denali and, indeed, combined with his daughter to harass his onetime mate. The two dominant wolves now made it a practice to chase Brigit whenever they saw her, meanwhile almost totally ignoring Siskiwit, whose extremely submissive nature evidently ruled her out as a breeding competitor. Then, in late February, Denali and Shawano chased Brigit into her old den and kept her there for three days, ostracizing her completely and preventing her from feeding.
On the third day, as Brigit, driven by hunger, was trying to emerge, Jim, who had brought food for the pack, witnessed the way in which the two Alphas were treating the now submissive wolf. He became angry with Shawano and Denali, entered the enclosure, and literally charged at the two wolves, who, looking upon him as a sort of super-Alpha, ran away. At this, Brigit shot out of the den, her hackles up, growling. She charged with Jim and tackled Denali, who dropped to the ground submissively. The alliance between dominant human male and submissive female wolf had turned the tables. This kind of interaction is common in wild packs, except, of course, that no human is involved. But if a dominant wolf takes the part of a subordinate animal against those that are harassing it, the low-ranking wolf joins with its high-status rescuer and, quite literally, “gets its own back.” Of course, in the absence of the dominant animal, the low-ranking wolf continues to be put down by its higher-ranking companions whenever it forgets itself and commits a trespass – which was what happened in Brigit’s situation.
Jim later regretted his anger-generated inte
rference, realizing that his behaviour had been motivated by human emotions rather than by objective, scientific reasoning. Nevertheless, his actions unwittingly produced very positive experimental evidence. At that time, Shawano must have weighed between ninety and ninety- five pounds and Denali probably about eighty pounds, both of them immensely strong, fully dominant wolves that singly or together could easily have killed Jim had they decided to meet his charge. That they did not do so speaks volumes for the rigid disciplines imposed by the hierarchical laws that have been regulating wolf societies probably since before the advent of man. Furthermore, the unplanned “experiment” also showed that under the proper conditions, wolves can readily imprint on humans and look upon them as bonafide members of the pack, even to the point of accepting one or more individuals as ultra-dominant superiors. Let it not be supposed, however, that I am advocating that persons who have dealings with wolves should engage in similar behaviour! Jim’s actions were spontaneous and, as he himself realized afterwards, rather fool hardy; the results were positive from an investigative standpoint. But whenever humans have close contact with wild animals, no matter how tame and people-oriented these may be, it must always be borne in mind that every one of them is an individual in its own right. Whatever one of a kind may do, it does not necessarily mean that all members of the same species will also do it.
In contrast to Jim’s experience, my wolf, Wa decided to challenge my status just as Denali challenged her mother’s. He was ten months old at the time and he and his sister, Matta, had been allowed into the house when they scratched at the door for admission. We were just finishing supper, the main course of which that evening included T-bone steaks. After the wolves entered, accompanied by our malamute dog, Tundra, who was treated by the yearlings as a Beta male, Wa came to my place at the table, sniffed, and decided to help himself to the steak bone that was on my otherwise empty plate. This was a liberty that an Alpha would not tolerate, so I reacted by aiming a light slap at his muzzle with an open hand, a perhaps too-mild reprimand. Before my fingers made contact with his nose, he growled deeply and fastened his jaws on my right forearm, a crushing bite that produced a deep puncture, the scar of which I still carry. There was only one course open to me. I had to defeat the wolf in his own way. For perhaps ninety seconds we rolled about on the floor, until I was able to scissor my legs around Wa’s waist while securing a stranglehold around his neck. Finding himself unable to move, and becoming short of breath, the wolf capitulated, whining his submission. I let him go immediately and he went to lie down in a corner. Matta and Tundra, meanwhile, had been very interested spectators, and my wife a very frightened witness. Now, although bleeding and feeling quite apprehensive, I knew that I had to reinforce my Alpha status, so I went to Wa, leaned over him, growled as I showed my teeth, and pushed his head against the floor, securing a hold on the scruff of his neck. He reacted by raising a back leg, tucking his tail against his belly, and wetting himself; then he whined. I released him immediately and patted his head, smiling and speaking softly to him, whereupon I was affectionately mobbed by him and Matta and Tundra. Wa never challenged me again.
In Praise of Wolves Page 6