Fauna Series No. 5

Fauna of the National Parks — No. 5 The Wolves of Mount McKinley

CHAPTER TWO:
WOLF (continued)

Wags, the Captive Wolf

Figure 11: Female wolf pup, Wags, the day after she was taken from the den. She was about a week old, and her eyes had not yet opened. [East Fork River, May 16, 1940.]

The wolf pup removed from the East Fork den on May 15, 1940, was taken for the purpose of checking on the development of the pups at the den and familiarizing myself with wolf character. The pup was a dark furry female, so young that its eyes were still closed and it could only crawl about on its stomach. Because of her friendliness and tail wagging as she grew older, we called her Wags, a name she continued to merit. Her eyes did not open until May 23, so she was a week old or less when brought to the cabin. From the beginning she readily took evaporated milk, slightly diluted, from a nipple, and thrived. The first 4 days she was restless and whimpered softly much of the time, but then she quieted down and became contented. As she grew older her appetite increased. For instance she drank 8-1/2 ounces of milk on May 19 and 13 ounces on May 23. On June 2 she drank milk from an open dish. The nipple was discarded because she was having difficulty getting milk from it. Her mouth seemed too large. At this time she was able to walk around in a wobbly manner. The pups at the den were also now walking about outside their burrow. They were first seen outside on June 1. Wags howled for the first time on June 10.

Figure 12: Wolf pup about 3 weeks old, drinking condensed milk through a nipple. [East Fork River, June 2, 1940.]

On June 25 I fed the pup its first ground squirrel. She picked it up, growled, shook it, and repeated the growling and shaking several times. First she bit off the tip of the tail, then chewed off both front feet, a shoulder, ribs, and internal organs. She ate the stomach wall and part of the intestines, together with their contents of vegetation. On later occasions she often ate the stomach contents along with the stomach. The chewing was done far back in the mouth. When she had eaten all but the hind quarters, back, and head, her stomach was distended and she could hold no more. She cleaned her jowls by rubbing them on the grass, and then went to sleep stretched out on her side. A magpie came along later and flew off with the rest of the ground squirrel, a division of the spoils common in the wilds.

On May 15, when Wags was about a week old, she had the following measurements: Total length 14-5/8 inches, tail 3-5/8 inches, hind foot, 2-3/8 inches; ear, 1 inch. On July 12 she was 14-1/2 inches tall at the shoulder; on August 6, 17-1/2 inches; on September 5, 19-1/2 inches; on October 23, 24 inches. By midwinter she had attained most of her growth. On December 17, 1941, when she was in her second year, she measured 27 inches at the shoulder (measurement made by Charles Peterson).

Figure 13: Wolf pup at the age of about 7 weeks. [East Fork River, June 29, 1940.]

The pup was usually chained near the kitchen door but all summer she was permitted to run loose for a while almost every day. She enjoyed wading in the little camp stream and prowling through the grass. When I called or whistled she would return and was never hard to catch, although by fall she sometimes did not like to come near the chain, knowing that she would be tied up. She recognized strangers but was not very shy and usually came to them and permitted their petting.

The black female wolf on several occasions, and the black male once, were seen near our cabin at East Fork, apparently attracted there by the wolf pup. (We had no garbage pile.) They probably sometimes were at camp without our knowledge, especially at night when we were asleep and no ground squirrels were abroad to call the alarm.

Figure 14: Wolf pup at the age of about 3-1/2 months, [East Fork River, August 24,1940.]

On June 27, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the ground squirrels in the vicinity of the cabin were uttering alarm calls. When I looked outside I saw the black male wolf trotting off 100 yards away. It turned to look at me several times before leaving. I followed it to the highway in the car. Later it passed close to the cabin in returning to the den. At noon the squirrels were again giving the alarm and the black male was seen only 25 yards behind the cabin.

On August 11, at 7 o'clock in the evening, the wolf pup was heard whining softly. On looking out I saw the black female only a few yards from the pup. The following evening at 8 o'clock I heard the pup whining again and saw the black female with it. She traveled slowly and reluctantly up the slope, looking back repeatedly. The pup tried to follow and when it reached the end of the chain kept jumping forward to be away. The black female trotted off to join three other wolves which were about 200 yards from the cabin. If the pup had been loose it surely would have gone off with the band.

Toward the end of the summer Wags would seize my hand in her jaws in play but she never pressed hard enough to hurt. By early winter her teeth were so long that I had to wear gloves when I played with her, and although she was careful not to clamp down, still her "tenderness" was a little too rough for my bare hand. By late spring she played less in this way. She often cowered in a friendly way when I approached her, just as a wild wolf often cowers when approaching another wolf.

Wags was not only friendly with people but also with dogs and liked to play with them. In early November she was seen playing with a small Husky pup about half her size. She was gentle with him, pawed him lightly, and galloped vigorously around him. During the winter the pup approached her almost every day to play. Once while Wags was feeding on some bones the dog pup came along and began to feed on the scraps. He growled and snapped at Wags, who retreated, wagging her tail. She permitted the pup to eat all the scraps even though she was much more powerful than he and was very fond of the bones. In late winter when the dog was almost as large as the wolf, he often growled and snapped at her, but she never became angry and always was able to jump aside or, in some cases, protect herself by taking a position on top of him. It was surprising to me that she continued to be good tempered with the dog, and never harmed him, as she could so easily have done.

Figure 15: The tame wolf enjoyed playing with a malemute pup. She was always gentle, even when the pup, as it grew older, lost its temper at times and attacked her. [Park Headquarters, November 1940.]

When I moved from Headquarters out into the park in the spring of 1941, Wags was placed in one of the dog pens. She was much more restless here than when she was chained near our cabin. During the summer I visited her when I came to Headquarters. She always recognized me and was beside herself with friendliness. The day I left the park I paid a last visit to the most friendly "dog" I have ever known.

In a letter of transmittal accompanying a wildlife report, Superintendent Frank Been wrote as follows about Wags on February 3, 1942, 6 months after I lad left the park: "As Wildlife Ranger Andrew Fluetsch made reference to a wolf carrying away a door mat from the Superintendent's residence, explanation should be made that the culprit was Wags, the domesticated she-wolf which was raised from a pup. Wags has been permitted to exercise on the wire to which the dogs are fastened by leash. She broke the wire on two occasions and explored the Park Headquarters. She was as playful and gentle as a dog of the same age and enjoyed being near the people with whom she was acquainted."

In a memorandum to the Director of the National Park Service dated April 14, 1942, Superintendent Been discusses Wags' behavior during the breeding period as follows: "The wolf is surprisingly gentle and playful. She plays more roughly than a dog but does not bite. There has been only one incident that varies with this general rule of the animal's conduct. We had been chaining the wolf to the exercising wire, permitting her to run loose occasionally. One evening the caretaker was taking the wolf back to her kennel for the evening when she turned on him. The man claims that he had to climb on the kennel fence in order to get away from the animal which had torn one sleeve of his shirt. The caretaker was alone and could make no one hear his calls so that he eventually coaxed the animal into an open kennel without getting to the ground as he stated the wolf showed that she wanted to attack. Since that time we have had no trouble with her but we have discontinued moving her between the kennel and the wire.

"We believe that she was distracted as she was in heat and also reluctant to give up the freedom of the exercising wire for the confines of the kennel.

"Since the incident we have arranged a wire on which she has considerable freedom so that we do not have her in the kennel at all now. She appears to be happier and healthier where she has more leeway than in the kennel."

I was acquainted with two other captive wolves which were, so far as I could tell, similar in disposition to Wags. In 1939 I saw a male near Livengood which had been removed from a den along with five others.

One pup had died early, but the other five were raised and became tame. When allowed to run loose they visited other miners in the region and became somewhat of a nuisance. At the time of my visit a black female, said to be the tamest of the lot, was away. The owner said she was remaining away because she did not want to come home and be chained. The male I saw on the chain permitted petting and handling by us strangers.

Another captive wolf, a female, owned by Mrs. Faith Hartman, was unusually tame. When Otto Geist and I visited Mrs. Hartman at Fairbanks her wolf was a year and a half old. When she unchained it and let it loose in the cabin it came to each of us like a pet dog, anxious to be friendly. This is the wolf that crossed with a dog and had pups when she was 2 years old.

Figure 16: Wags is waiting expectantly for a romp, but she is too rough for this little girl. [Park Headquarters, February 1941.]

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Last Modified: Thurs, Dec 20 2001 10:00:00 pm PDT
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