As I have been watching the International Wolf Center live camera feeds (North / South) as well as some videos recorded by IWC wolf fans (because my time zone does not overlap with the greatest wolf activity in Ely), I began noticing certain types of games (and I would call them intellectual games) that the Exhibit Pack plays.
Certainly, these adults and subadults (Grayson, Axel, Rieka, Caz, Blackstone) also play the same games that pups play, and many sources can give you lists of such games that are designed to exercise motor activity, hone cognitive skills (but also psychological skills that are necessary for cooperation, tolerance etc.), learn early hunting tricks etc.
(You can read an article about Yellowstone wolves, how and why they play on Psychology Today – ‘The Wolves of Yellowstone Love to Play—Just Like Dogs’, Bekoff, M. 2019.)
However, I noticed some games which appeared to me were rooted in pup / pup-adult play but that had taken a more intellectual, strategizing turn as these games were carried out by adults (or young adults) who were not taking care of pups and who probably did not have chances to invest their full cognitive potential into their daily affairs (thereby seeking outlets and compensations in play).
I do not wish to state that these games only serve to substitute for what the ‘wolves are missing out on’.
Personally, I believe that – just like many species – wolves have come to enjoy what in human world might be termed as ‘acting’.
Many animals have moved on from direct, physical confrontations to displays that substitute actual conflicts and that can lead to actual conflicts but that are, in many respects, enactments of the motivations, emotions and physiological states involved in actual conflicts without suffering real injury.
Rather than biting one another or striking at one another with hooves and antlers, many species have evolved rituals and visual organs/markings that allow them to transfer the ancient dispute to a state of performance art (the difference being that in human theatre actors rarely if ever fully believe their role to the degree that they would be prepared to take it on as reality if the situation evolved to request such escalation).
Wolves are not the only species that have learned to enact rather than to act (i.e., to bring the interactions to a symbolic level albeit not without a true change in hormonal pathways etc.; however, in the post I will be using the term ‘acting’ not in the sense of ‘carrying out actions vs. pretending to carry out actions’ but in the sense of ‘playing certain roles’ just like in drama).
Thusly, while, of course, the wolves in IWC must be somewhat bored in their deprivation from ‘real wild life’ (although one could argue whether they miss the killing of dangerous prey, the starving etc.), I think that their play is a naturally evolved strategy of not only keeping themselves entertained and bonded with one another but also of pursuing their ‘career as wolves’ through either mimicking some behaviours they have been constrained from or through developing the ‘acting paradigm’ which has ensured their successful social existence.
So far, I have been able to distinguish some patterns (besides the physical play which the wolves, of course, need to keep themselves healthy and to enjoy their bodies) that seem to me befitting this quite unique category of ‘adult wolf play’ (unique not because wolves outside of captivity would not be capable of or prone to engaging in such play but because wolves in the wild probably rarely have a chance to engage in such play because they have the far more exciting task of raising the pups who need play always but it is a different type of play and adult wolves in the wild (older than yearlings) might not be able to devote as much time to adult play).
I have termed these patterns as follows:
- social status dynamics game;
- strategizing game;
- ‘my will be done’ game.
Of course, there are other types of games these wolves play and if I manage to unravel their meaning, I might create another post discussing them.
In this post, I will discuss the first pattern and the other two patterns will be addressed in subsequent posts.
Social status dynamics game
I believe that many times the ICW wolves engage in close proximity play which involves all or most of the members of the pack simultaneously and within the settings of which any one individual must at all times remember the social status (and the respective etiquette expected) of any other individual.
They must also keep in mind how this social status and their specific social roles change when other individuals are around (e.g., wolves would play differently if Caz only plays with Blackstone (brothers) or if Rieka also joins them (one year older, unrelated female) or if the elders of the pack are also present (Axel and Grayson).
Moreover, it seems that the behaviours expected during these high-speed, dynamic games also shift according to whom the individual interacts with specifically during any given moment.
For example, if Blackstone rolls on his back to paw at Grayson submissively but then Caz approaches, Blackstone has to take account of both his subordinate status to Grayson and of his competitive status (for Grayson’s affections) with Caz.
The very next moment, Rieka might join in enticing them to shift their attitudes toward her and to perhaps chase her, and the focus changes, and Caz and Blackstone probably need to follow Grayson’s lead but they are also allowed to pursue Rieka by themselves; thereby, the decision must be made on the degree of independent action they would take (or perhaps they might choose to compete with Rieka instead and keep Grayson from diverting his attention from the brothers).
If Axel appears, Grayson might try to get the playful youth to harass his own brother instead and then the young wolves have to figure out what they want, whom they are dealing with and how to proceed all over again.
These changes occur during the period of seconds.
One second the situation might involve a specific number of wolves with specific status (and with specific rules governing the individual’s interactions with every single one of them – rules that must be combined to determine the individual’s behaviour in a complex social setting) and then the very next second the situation might change entirely.
The wolves have to keep track of the social rules at a high-speed pace and to respond appropriately in close quarters, while rolling, running and often being tugged at by two other individuals who each represent different expectations/requirements of polite but playful approach.
In some ways, these types of games remind me of the British ceremonials involved in, for example, meeting the Queen and knowing how to address the whole host of duchesses and earls and barons.
But, surely, it is not merely about ‘the appearances’.
The wolves are learning how to be friendly and how to get along with different types of personalities while, at the same time, minding their social boundaries (determined by, e.g., status, age, sex, kinship).
What makes it most exciting, as I have mentioned before, is the dynamically shifting character of these games and the necessity to respond quickly, in a precisely calculated manner, in a physically-engaged capacity.
I believe that the ICW wolves highly enjoy these games and such games might serve as precursor to forming wolf societies outside of the basic family units.
The ICW Exhibit Pack wolves are not all related to one another (see above).
They likely perceive their unit as a family unit, however, because the two older wolves are, indeed, brothers while the three remaining individuals have joined the group at a very young age (ca. 4 months) when they would have perceived the older wolves as parental figures or older sibling figures.
However, this unit is also a social unit.
It is apparent that the wolves are aware of their kinship.
When Caz and Blackstone interact with one another, there is a certain ease with which they treat one another’s physical bodies.
They would not hurt one another, of course, but I am certain (from observations) that the boundary between ‘my space and your space’ is much vaguer between these siblings.
They do not seem to be as wary to cause physical harm to another – not because they care less for one another but perhaps because they have, firstly, wrestled one another and used one another as a pillow since they were born; and, secondly, it is possible that genetic relatedness allows to better predict ‘thresholds’ in other individuals (related individuals might have more similar perceptions of when it hurts, when they need to rest, when they become overwhelmed etc.).
It is simpler to predict the related individual’s response and therefore predictions are more natural, automatic.
Axel and Grayson do not physically interact as much but they seem to have this ‘mental accord’ (almost ‘telepathic’ conveyance of intent and attitude).
The other interactions must involve more of deliberation, calculation and caution in order to know the limits and then to figure out how to overcome them.
By becoming adults, these wolves probably grow aware of the complexity of their social circumstance, i.e., they are not just a sort of a foster family.
They are also a society.
And the roles that are naturally assumed in wolf families (and also in captive wolf groups where individuals have been raised by one another) must transform into new types of roles which are probably far more rarely observed in the wild.
I mentioned the titles of ‘queen’, ‘duchess’, ‘earl’.
In a wolf society, such titles must evolve out of the roles of ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘offspring’, ‘older sibling’, ‘younger sibling’, ‘aunt’, ‘uncle’, ‘mate’, ‘neighbour’, ‘intruder’, ‘potential ally’.
Roles such as ‘parent’, ‘offspring’ are not merely inherited.
In many respects, they are also job titles and social hierarchy titles, i.e., they also constitute social roles.
I believe that the captive wolves at IWC are developing these natural roles into more strictly social roles retaining the perceptions and expectations implied in the natural roles.
It would be a most interesting society within which the wolf meeting another, unrelated wolf (who have not partaken in one another’s growing up process) might interact with them based on the social roles that have roots in the natural, family roles but that have become detached from the family context.
An older wolf would not be a ‘father’ but someone (some type of a ‘king’) whose social identity with regard to the younger individual has evolved out from the implications of ‘fatherhood’ to which the other identities are added (such as ‘neighbour’, ‘competitor’, ‘ally’).
It is difficult to even predict how such role would form in the wolf’s mind and psyche.
We have a tendency to assign, for example, ‘fatherhood’ to God, bosses, political leaders etc. but, frequently, it is an infantile and regressive outlook.
I think that the wolves are moving forward so that they could make estimates (how to address one another) both on basis of their social impact (someone who might take the prey needed for one’s pack) and on basis of the attitudes toward others learned in the family (someone who, when not threatening the welfare of one’s family, might be treated like an older brother).
The outcome of bidding these two attitudes against one another, might be the foundation of where the wolf society is evolving to.
Intraspecific mortality is a significant and frequently highest risk factor in unexploited wolf populations.
Any species strives to avoid mortality or to lower its risk.
However, mortality is also a regulating factor that insures against depletion of prey, disease and many other tragedies.
Thusly, if wolves wished to decrease the intraspecific mortality rates and to be able to cooperate better with unrelated individuals while, at the same time, keeping the regulatory force of the mortality intact, the games that these adult wolves play at ICW might be exemplary of how to evolve a response which is kind but preserving of the most fundamental values.
If wild wolves had more time to play as adults, who knows what their society would evolve to look like?
References
The Wolves of Yellowstone Love to Play—Just Like Dogs, Bekoff, M., Sep 15, 2019, https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/animal-emotions/201909/the-wolves-yellowstone-love-play-just-dogs
Notes by Ieva 