Since my first field season last summer, I had been itching to see the behavior of the wolves in a new season: winter. It would be my final season of data collection for my PhD. I said farewell to brutal watch tans, buzzing meat bees, and a lot of sleepy wolves, and welcomed very active canids with fluffy coats, luscious green habitats, and a whole lot of rain (even snow!).

Wait… you work with wolves!??

Yes! It is not often your favorite animal from childhood turns into your study species. My journey in animal behavior research began as a master’s student at Sonoma State University, where I was involved in the study of the behavior of Malayan sun bears. Giving enrichment to animals is my passion. But, one enrichment item may not be experienced the same by all individuals in a group. Coming to UC Davis has allowed me to dive deeper into the study of individual differences, or personalities, in animals. I am especially interested in how wolf personality relates to their interaction with a puzzle box, a common way to study problem-solving behaviors in carnivores as seen in hyenas [1], coyotes [2], and big cats [3]. A topic that has not yet been widely explored in gray wolves [4].

My research takes me from your local Bay Area zoo in Oakland all the way down to Southern California and up to 4,000 feet elevation in the mountains of Julian. During data collection, I do behavioral observations two days of the week. Beginning at 8am, I watch each individual wolf for 15-minutes, multiple times per day, taking notes on their behavior every minute. Every day was different with the wolves but I became an expert at finding their favorite sleeping spots and even being able to tell the difference between a wolf’s resting site and a dirt patch. The data I get shows me how often or how long wolves spend sniffing the environment, sleeping, trotting, and performing social behaviors like submission, playing, or being in proximity to other wolves. I am currently working in the computer lab going through 200 hours worth of wolf behavior, but I will forever miss those special moments hearing the wolves howl or watching them get the zoomies when no one else was around. 

The other three days of the week, I am doing video-recorded experiments that involve the presentation of a variety of objects. Wolves are very neophobic, or fearful of new things. So, this part of my study seeks to find out how fearful they are, and if the more active individuals in behavioral observations are also the ones spending more time sniffing or staying close to new things in their environment. These experiment days involve charging cameras, long drives to the study sites, setting up tripods, placing out objects, and managing video files. During my winter trials in Oakland, I was also holding a Teaching Associate position on campus two days a week (which meant seven day work weeks for five weeks). I could not have made it through this season in Oakland without the help of my hard-working undergraduate interns, who spent many hours building papier-mâché enrichment, standing on the zoo’s boardwalk taking notes on wolf activity, and scrubbing the objects clean of any leftover blood from the tasty treats we provided the wolves.

At my far field site in Julian, however, I was running these trials all by myself with two staff members. These were long days in the field, but winter holds many other special moments for me. It had been seven months since the wolves last saw these objects and I was nervous about how they might respond, especially towards the puzzle box. Last summer, it took many weeks before the wolves got close to the boxes (with its doors left open) to take the tasty treats. Two wolves always stood out, the papa wolves at both sites who were always the first to take the ‘risk’. It was the hope that data collection in the winter – overlapping with their breeding season, during a time wolves eat more – would allow us to see more wolves interacting with the objects. And, just as I hoped, over the winter more wolves began to show interest. The papa wolves were still winning at this game and proved to be ready for the next stage – closing the doors on the box. Without giving too much of the story away… both papa wolves solved the box!!!

Nothing can prepare you for that final day of data collection in the field, when the realization hits of no longer getting to see your study animals in-person. The very last day in Julian brought tears to my eyes, as I had to say goodbye to the wolves. Now I transition into the last stages of my PhD project by spending the next two years in the computer lab, diving into a million hours of video footage, analyzing the data, and writing my dissertation. I am excited to look back at the videos, see how the wolves interacted with the objects, and for the entire story to come together on these “big bad wolves”. 

To learn more about this research project, check out this UC Davis media story. If you want to stay posted on project updates, you can check out my twitter or the Animal Behavior & Cognition Lab’s Twitter or Website.

---

Yasmeen Ghavamian is a PhD Candidate in the Animal Biology Graduate Group at UC Davis in Dr. Kristina Horback’s lab. Her research interests began by examining the effects of enrichment on abnormal repetitive behaviors during her master’s program at Sonoma State University. Yasmeen now explores the relationship between personality and cognitive enrichment engagement in captive gray wolves to help inform management, welfare, and conservation practices.

---

[Edited by Cassidy Cooper]

References:

1. Benson-Amram, S., & Holekamp, K. E. (2012). Innovative problem solving by wild spotted hyenas. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279, 4087–4095. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1450 
   
2. Young, J. K., Touzot, L., Brummer, S. P. (2019). Persistence and conspecific observations improve problem-solving abilities of coyotes. PLoS ONE 14 (7): e0218778. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218778 
   
3. O’Connor, V. L., Thomas, P., Chodorow, M., & Borrego, N. (2022). Exploring innovative problem-solving in African lions (Panthera leo) and snow leopards (Panthera uncia). Behavioural Processes, 199, 104648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104648 
   
4. Benson-Amram, S., Griebling, H. J., & Sluka, C. M. (2023). The current state of carnivore cognition. Animal Cognition, 26(1), 37-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01709-2