4004 East 800 North Battle Ground, Indiana, 47920 P:: (765) 567-2265 F: (765) 567-4299 W: WolfPark.org This article is copyrighted © and can not be used without express permission of Wolf Park. For permission contact: [email protected] Koko: Wolf Park’s First Alpha Male by Pat Goodmann 2008 Koko and his litter sister Cassie were born on April 18, 1972 at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and became the first two wolves at Wolf Park in September of that year. When I met him in 1974, Koko was a confident two year old, leash trained and quite willing to meet and greet new humans. Over the course of our relationship, Koko taught me not to try to fit everything into one paradigm. Koko automatically became the first alpha male, and by 1974, we had not seen a lot of aggression among Koko, Cassie, and the pups we later introduced them to. This led Dr. Klinghammer to believe that confident alphas did not fight much. They took what challengers dished out, perhaps turning a shoulder to the other wolves with an air of “Is that the best you’ve got? Don’t make me laugh,” perhaps admonishing with some ritualized threats. Translating this into instructions for how the graduate students should get Koko to accept us into the pack, Dr. Klinghammer told us to stand there, take what ever Koko dished out, and show no fear. This was not always easy to do. We were all more concerned about Koko’s opinion than we were about the opinion of the graduate committee – the committee only bit metaphorically. We all got to know Koko’s “I’m going to bite you…What are you going to do about it?” look, as he approached with a springy step, pricked ears, bright intense stare, and a positively mischievous grin. He would approach us with “that look” and grab, making eye contact and gradually increasing his jaw pressure. Koko’s bites did not puncture, but they often left deep, bluish tooth marks which made impressive rainbow bruises. At the time, the paradigm said that Koko’s grabbing, biting, and pinching were used to gain dominance. Having seen at least one fight been the females in which the higher ranking wolf fought back, putting “the munch” on her opponent, Dr. Klinghammer allowed that possibly we might do something besides stand there and show no fear… The next time Koko went through this process of giving “the look,” then grabbing, biting, and pinching, I hit Koko on the muzzle. He was very surprised, submitted, and stopped testing me… for a while. Eventually I was allowed, by Koko and Dr. Klinghammer, to go in by myself (this was back in the dark ages, when dinosaurs grazed on the lawns of Purdue; we always go in with backup now). I was thrilled with the privilege and made time to go in with the wolves daily. I noticed, though, that Koko started trying to dominate me again. After all, what other reason could he have for grabbing me with increasing frequency? Wolves test and challenge, right? Bopping his nose no longer seemed to decrease the frequency of his grabbing, though he still let go promptly and submitted when I did it. Our relationship reached a very special point: I was feeling discouraged. It wasn’t fun to go in with the wolves any more. I had to force myself. Koko, on the other hand, er, paw, must have been encouraged with my progress. He waltzed up to me with that “I’m going to bite you” look, but instead of grabbing, he jumped up and snapped right in front of my face then immediately dropped down to lie on his back and grin hugely. In a flash I realized I had trained Koko to grab me! When he first did it, and I hit him, I rubbed his tummy when he submitted, as one of my favorite dog books recommended, so he would realize that I liked him, it was just his behavior I disliked. Koko decided the tummy rub was well worth a clout on the muzzle and repeatedly cued me to rub his tummy by approaching, grabbing, and rolling over when hit, then receiving the desired reward. When he started to skip the grabbing, it seemed he had decided to fade his training cue when he wanted a tummy rub. Though grateful for his help in seeing what I had been doing, I said coldly “I don’t scratch grabby wolves” and walked away. Like many beginning trainers I saw an animal pay for my lack of understanding. Luckily, once Koko made it clear how the social dynamic looked to him I knew what to do – train him to use a different cue. Koko was content to fade the grab and pinch, and eventually even the snap, and go straight to rolling over, grinning, and waving at me for tummy rubs instead. Our relationship throve and prospered. Koko also created games with other wolves. D’Artagnon lived with the pack from December 1974 to May 1975, and during that time, Koko did not take him too seriously. D’Arty never submitted, but he did spend more and more time trying to catch Koko off guard so he could sneak up, bite him in the