Wolf Center welcomes three new pups

Three of Ely’s newest residents were introduced to the public last week.The International Wolf Center has three new wolf pups that will eventually join the center’s captive pack. Male and female pups, born May 5. are joined by a female, born May 12, All have the same father but the youngest pup has a different mother than the other two. The pups will be named through a contest sponsored by Twin Cities television station KARE 11 (people may submit names by going to the Wolf Center website at www.wolf.org), but for now center staff have given them temporary monikers. Grizz is a male with dark, grizzled hair and Groan is a female who groans when picked up. The little black female is called Nubee for newborn. And though it may take two months before the pups are ready to join Malik and Shadow in the center’s captive pack, the pups will be part of a regular half hour educational program throughout the summer. Pup 101 talks about the pups’ social development and shows how they are growing. Morning with the pups’ will be a special 7:30 a.m. program with feeding for an extra fee, wherein the pups can be watched getting ready for the day. A special program will deal with the management plan for the pups to be assimilated into the pack. A video presentation called ‘Implementing the Pup Plan’ covers what led up to the changing dynamics of that pack , the integration of the arctic wolves, the maturing of the arctic, the deposing of the older animals and the new pups coming in. The pups are permanent residents at the Wolf Center now. They will be kept in the puppy pen until the weather warms up. Normally when they are with their mother they wouldn’t be out until they are 8-9 weeks old so the pups will stay inside until about July.The pups will then go into an outdoor enclosure which shares a fence line with the arctic wolves. They will be able to sniff each other to get used to each other, and then will be put together in early August. The pups have been removed from their mothers because a wolf is not like a dog that can bond with both dogs and humans. Wolf pups have an innate fear of humans that starts as young as 14-17 days of age. They will bond with whatever wolf or human with whom they have spent the most time. If they get to be three weeks of age and have spent most of the time with wolves, they fear people. The wolves at the Wolf Center will walk right up to the window and look at people, and are not stressed by the crowds that come to see them.