A pack is forming: the first direct contact between yearlings and pups

News, 06.07.2009, Kurt Kotrschal

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Till now the yearlings Shima, Taya, Aragorn and Kaspar lived close to six pups fom 2009 (Tatonga, Yukom, Geronimo, Nanuk, Apache und Cherokee), in visual contact, but separated by a fence. Friday, July 3rd we got them into direct contact the first time.

An exciting step indeed, the more as the future of our project depends on the successful integration of yearlings and pups into one pack. Getting them into direct contact was not without risks. Despite friendly exchanges between them through the fence, we could not exclude that the yearlings would respond aggressively. Therefore we (Friederike & Kurt) staged contacts only between the four older pupsTatonga, Yukon, Geronimo und Nanuk. The two little ones from the Basel Zoo are scheduled for contact in about two weeks.

We did it as safely as possible. First we took Aragorn on the leash and Friederike led him into the pup enclosure where Tatonga and later, Geronimo were waiting. Tatonga immediately started playing wildly, but Geronimo took a while until the ice broke. At first, we kept Aragorn on the leash and he attempted to roll on the pups and then nibbled their skin. After a while he engaged in chasing games, just as he would be a pup himself. We took him off the leas hand he was great. He was absolutely tolerant, even when the pups were hanging on his tail, in fact, he had a "smile" from one ear to the other. He himself was playing like a pup, but gently and without any growling.

After 10 Minutes we brought him back and it was Shimas term. On the leash first, she was somewhat nervous, but quickly calmed down and we could take her off the leash. Both, Aragorn and Shima reurgitated food, but the pups had little use for it. Geronimo rolled in Shimas halfdigested pulp of dry food, to our great joy.

Finally, we took Kaspars over. He did not relax, ran away from the pups and growled at them, just as some of our dogs do, particularly the males. But he was not aggressive either. Still we did not take him off the leash and returned him to his enclosure 10 min later.

Hence, we had a peaceful and promising first attempt getting pups and yearlings into contact. They are scheduled to form one pack when the youngsters are at least 5 months of age. The yearlings will be kind of "foster parents" for the pups and we expect that one of the older males wiill remain "Alpha" for quite a while. 

Particularly fascinating was how differently Aragorn and Kaspar responded to the pups. This supports my expectation, that the calm and socially competent Aragorn will finally take over from Kaspar, when the pack is finally together.