KENAI

Black Bear

Gender: male
Birthdate: 01.04.2010
Origin: Canada
In pack with: Amarok

Listening to Kenai's howl is very impressive. He has a very clear, deep and strong voice. As a nearly pure white wolf you can distinguish him very easily from the others. When training and dealing with him, he is one of our more nervous animals and is not always the easiest. Since he fully reached adulthood, he does not like it when strangers enter his enclosure. It takes a long time to build a relationship with him and requires very intense contact.

... appearance

Kenai is the lightest wolf we have and is almost completely white. Especially in winter it is noticeable that he has a particularly thick coat compared to the other wolves. Unlike most wolves, Kenai has brown eyes.

... with conspecifics

Together with Amarok he forms a small pack of men. At first Geronimo was one of them and was the boss. However, when Amarok grew up and Geronimo showed a moment of weakness, Amarok got Kenai to join his side and together they asserted themselves over Geronimo. Thus, Geronimo had to leave the pack.

Afterwards it was unclear, which of the two called the shots. Kenai is the more insecure wolf and so Amarok prevailed as leader. However, Kenai regularly questions Amarok's position.

... while learning and interacting with us

When food is involved, Kenai struggles to hold himself together, and he always needs some time to calm down so that he can concentrate properly. In familiar situations that he enjoys, he can also be very calm and then achieves good results, such as on the touch screen.

When dealing with people, Kenai makes a huge distinctions between people who have raised him or have been working with him for a long time, and those who have come a little later in his life.

... with strangers and objects

Kenai used to be very enthusiastic even with strangers, but in hindsight it looks like it was more of a sign of being overwhelmed. Unfortunately, it just became too much for him at one point and now he usually reacts negatively when he comes in contact with strangers. Since he often shows this behaviour at the fence already, he is currently not in contact with people. We are trying to teach him the pleasure of working with people he doesn’t know again, but unfortunately that is not so easy.

To start with, Kenai is always afraid of strange objects, so he is one of the wolves who always needs a bit more training for different tests than some of the other wolves. But once he has overcome his shyness, then he is passionate about participating.

... in puppy age

Kenai was one of four puppies born April 1, 2010 in Parc Safari, Canada. While his younger brother Wapi and his two sisters Naaja and Ruby were already mottled as babies, Kenai was dark grey to black. Kenai also got his name due to his initially darker colour, as the translation is "black bear".

Kenai - aside from the colour - really lived up to his name. While his little brother Wapi rather belonged to the category of cuddly wolves, Kenai was often a real little grumpy bear.

For strangers, however, he showed his best side. Each new person was energetically greeted with friendly tail wagging and facial licks.

Kenai seemed to enjoy being able to attack his little brother while he slept. Mostly lurking in ambush, he pounced onto his unsuspecting brother and bit him in the ears or legs until he woke up and wanted to put an end to the commotion through loud growling. After full physical exertion, they happily began their well-deserved nap. It was in this way that they enjoyed their puppy existence.