Tatonga has fun

Diary entry, 04.04.2010, guest

Pictures of the day (3 images)   

Today was finally the day. We started with the Novel Object Test. During the Novel Object Test the wolves are presented with different objects that they do not know and that are potentially scary for them in the testing enclosure. With this test we want to find out how wolves react to objects unknown to them and what behavior they show. The testing enclosure is visually separated from the normal enclosure by a long curtain so that the animals cannot see the object put in before and so the animals in the normal enclosure do not see the object and influence the wolf being tested.
Tatonga was the first animal to be tested with a big red gym ball. As soon as the door opened she ran into the testing enclosure and approached the big red „thing“. Once she discovered that the ball was not scary, she rolled it through the enclosure and played with it. Then she lost interest in the ball and began tearing down the curtain that was blocking the view into the other enclosure and destroying it.
After this we could not test the other wolves and now we have to think of a solution to protect the curtain. Otherwise, I am quite sure, the other wolves will do the same to the curtain.