Koda is teaching Shadow about pack hierarchy. Shadow’s crouching posture and licking express submissiveness.
tive than an adorable, charismatic wolf pup? Since his arrival at the Zoo in June 2014, Shadow, now a six-month-old gray wolf youngster, has been doing his best to spread the word. His training started early, which is key to his success as an animal ambassador. “He is the youngest wolf we’ve had the privilege to work with in 25 years,” Kristi says. “Growing up in the nursery at the Children’s Zoo, he got used to people watching him. And he adores his keepers. That’s where his name came from—he followed his keepers like a shadow.” She adds that this early introduction to humans is important, as such interaction is a huge part of his role as ambassador. “We make his training fun for him, because then he wants to do it again and again,” Kristi explains. “And what he does the most is what he’s going to be the best at.” Kristi is confident about Shadow’s future as an animal ambassador, based upon his personality—he’s confident and sweet—and his caretakers, which include not only the animal training team but the nursery staff as well. “This group is second to none when it comes to raising baby animals,” she says proudly. “And when they’re old enough to begin training, that starts with playing.” Nursery keeper Becky Kier has watched Shadow grow and learn. “We focus on purposeful play, which shapes behavior,” Becky says. “And it’s important to start young, because the window of time for a pup to learn is short—by the time they’re six months old, they’ve reached their full size.” Even though Shadow’s a big boy (he weighed 70 pounds at 4 months old), there’s still a lot of puppy in him. His rambunctiousness can try the patience of Koda, Wegeforth Bowl’s adult gray wolf, who is not shy about putting the whippersnapper in his place. “That’s how he learns the hierarchy that is so important in the wolf world,” Kristi explains, adding that Shadow gets a lot of his social cues from Koda and his other mentor, Duke, an Anatolian shepherd. Shadow and Koda take walks together (with their keepers, of course), and the wolf youngster is fascinated with Duke, following the larger dog
Shadow’s animal ambassador training began almost immediately after his arrival at the Zoo in June 2014, and he is a confident, even-tempered young wolf.
around. The precocious pup has already participated in an education program for second-graders, and he passed with flying colors. The training team members at Wegeforth Bowl are doing their best to keep up with his youthful zeal, and they are confident his appearances as an ambassador will help people see this species in a new light. Shadow the winsome wolf hasn’t huffed, puffed, or blown a single house down. n SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL
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