4004 East 800 NorthBattle Ground, Indiana, 47920P:: (765) 567-2265F: (765) 567-4299W: WolfPark.org

This article is copyrighted © and can not be used without express permission of Wolf Park.For permission contact: Admin@WolfPark.org

Koko: Wolf Park’s First Alpha Male by Pat Goodmann 2008

Koko and his litter sisterCassie were born on April18, 1972 at the BrookfieldZoo in Chicago andbecame the first twowolves at Wolf Park inSeptember of that year.When I met him in 1974,Koko was a confident twoyear old, leash trainedand quite willing to meetand greet new humans.Over the course of ourrelationship, Koko taughtme not to try to fiteverything into oneparadigm.

Koko automatically became the first alpha male, and by 1974,we had not seen a lot of aggression among Koko, Cassie, andthe pups we later introduced them to. This led Dr.Klinghammer to believe that confident alphas did not fightmuch. They took what challengers dished out, perhaps turninga shoulder to the other wolves with an air of “Is thatthe best you’ve got? Don’t make me laugh,” perhapsadmonishing with some ritualized threats. Translating this intoinstructions for how the graduate students should get Koko toaccept us into the pack, Dr. Klinghammer told us to standthere, take what ever Koko dished out, and show no fear. Thiswas not always easy to do. We were all more concerned aboutKoko’s opinion than we were about the opinion of the graduatecommittee – the committee only bit metaphorically.

We all got to know Koko’s “I’m going to bite you…What are yougoing to do about it?” look, as he approached with a springystep, pricked ears, bright intense stare, and a positivelymischievous grin. He would approach us with “that look” andgrab, making eye contact and gradually increasing his jawpressure. Koko’s bites did not puncture, but they often leftdeep, bluish tooth marks which made impressive rainbowbruises. At the time, the paradigm said that Koko’s grabbing,biting, and pinching were used to gain dominance. Havingseen at least one fight been the females in which the higherranking wolf fought back, putting “the munch” on her opponent,Dr. Klinghammer allowed that possibly we might do somethingbesides stand there and show no fear… The next time Kokowent through this process of giving “the look,” then grabbing,biting, and pinching, I hit Koko on the muzzle. He was verysurprised, submitted, and stopped testing me… for a while.

Eventually I was allowed, by Koko and Dr. Klinghammer, to goin by myself (this was back in the dark ages, when dinosaursgrazed on the lawns of Purdue; we always go in with backupnow). I was thrilled with the privilege and made time to go inwith the wolves daily. I noticed, though, that Koko started tryingto dominate me again. After all, what other reason could he

have for grabbing me with increasing frequency? Wolves testand challenge, right? Bopping his nose no longer seemed todecrease the frequency of his grabbing, though he still let gopromptly and submitted when I did it.

Our relationship reached a very special point: I was feelingdiscouraged. It wasn’t fun to go in with the wolves any more. Ihad to force myself. Koko, on the other hand, er, paw, musthave been encouraged with my progress. He waltzed up to mewith that “I’m going to bite you” look, but instead of grabbing,he jumped up and snapped right in front of my face thenimmediately dropped down to lie on his back and grin hugely.

In a flash I realized I had trained Koko to grab me! When hefirst did it, and I hit him, I rubbed his tummy when hesubmitted, as one of my favorite dog books recommended, sohe would realize that I liked him, it was just his behavior Idisliked. Koko decided the tummy rub was well worth a clouton the muzzle and repeatedly cued me to rub his tummy byapproaching, grabbing, and rolling over when hit, thenreceiving the desired reward. When he started to skip thegrabbing, it seemed he had decided to fade his training cuewhen he wanted a tummy rub. Though grateful for his help inseeing what I had been doing, I said coldly “I don’t scratchgrabby wolves” and walked away. Like many beginningtrainers I saw an animal pay for my lack of understanding.Luckily, once Koko made it clear how the social dynamiclooked to him I knew what to do – train him to use a differentcue. Koko was content to fade the grab and pinch, andeventually even the snap, and go straight to rolling over,grinning, and waving at me for tummy rubs instead. Ourrelationship throve and prospered.

Koko also created games with other wolves. D’Artagnon livedwith the pack from December 1974 to May 1975, and duringthat time, Koko did not take him too seriously. D’Arty neversubmitted, but he did spend more and more time trying tocatch Koko off guard so he could sneak up, bite him in the

4004 East 800 NorthBattle Ground, Indiana, 47920P:: (765) 567-2265F: (765) 567-4299W: WolfPark.org

This article is copyrighted © and can not be used without express permission of Wolf Park.For permission contact: Admin@WolfPark.org

rump, and run away. D’Arty was a long legged fast wolf whoout ran Koko easily.

But Koko did not seem perturbed. He mastered the art ofsleeping with one eye open and came up with a way of turningD’Arty’s obsession with sneaking up and biting into a game oftag. He’d invite chase, or just let D’Arty approach, and then runaway. He seemed fully aware that D’Arty would overtake himbecause as D’Arty got within grabbing distance, Kokoperformed a balletic leap, reversing his direction and snappingright in front of an astonished D’Arty’s nose. After forcingD’Arty to apply the brakes suddenly, Koko performed anotherballetic whirl and resumed running away. It was remarkably likethe maneuvers of cartoon animals, and it continued until Kokotired of the game.

Once Koko turned the tables in the game of Sneak Up andGrab the Sleeping Wolf by literally tiptoeing up to D’Arty, whowas lying, relaxed, eyes closed in the sun. Koko stood for along moment, gazing down in what I would like to believe wasa sublime moment of anticipation, then darted his head downand grabbed D’Arty’s tail hard. D’Arty went from slumber toshrieking turbo charged escape in the space of two seconds.Koko did not pursue, but simply watched him go.

While being reared in the Brookfield Children’s Zoo, Koko andhis sister Cassie were bottle fed a milk replacement formulacalled Esbilac. It was not widely known that its formula thenwas based on studies of lab beagles, so while it had sufficientargentine for medium and small breed pups, it led to eyeproblems in large breed dog or wolf pups when used beforethey were fourteen days old. Koko and Cassie had been bottlefed starting at five days of age, and both were night blind.Perhaps because of their argentine deficiency as pups, Kokoand Cassie occasionally saw Things That Were Not There.Cassie would suddenly crouch and look upward anxiously, as ifsomething airborne had just swooped down at her. One of ourstaff saw her do that and said “Wow, a whole flock of themwent over that time, didn’t they girl.” Koko was not worried byThings With Wings; he saw Invisible Mice. He had these“mouse hallucinations” from time to time, and he seemed tofind them as entertaining as we did. His eyes darted back andforth as if watching a mouse scurry. Then he’d try to pin themouse under one foot or both. On one occasion, the mouseseemed to be running back and forth along the doorsill underthe main gate. Koko managed to perform the stiff legged jumpthat canids use to catch small prey, but when he cautiouslylifted one paw and peeked, we could see from his reaction thatthe mouse had escaped. Koko’s head turned as the mousetried a desperate run across the open. Koko gave chase. Themouse picked up speed. Koko remained in hot pursuit. Themouse evaded his pounces, moving so quickly that Koko hadto leap into a flat out run. The mouse ran for the fence, as theyalways did, foiling Koko’s attempt to catch them. He couldmomentarily pin one of these invisible mice, but they alwaysescaped. I will solemnly aver that on one such occasion Kokoslid to a stop at the east fence, eyes on the ground as themouse ran across the access road into the field. Koko

continued to lift his head, perhaps watching the mouse runtoward the eastern horizon, as if heading for the sunrise.

Koko’s eye problems eventually led to his loss of status in thepack, when a young male found himself in a position to exploitKoko’s night blindness. On the 27th of January 1977,Dr. Klinghammer ran into the enclosure to break up adangerous fence fight. In the excitement, Attila redirected hisaggression from wolves on the other side of the fence,grabbing the nearest pack member by the rump. It was Dr.Klinghammer Attila grabbed, and he rounded on Attila with abellow of outrage. Attila drew back, and, still very aroused, heredirected again. Unable to see in the dark, Koko was taken bysurprise. Attila and his higher ranking brother Tornado followedup on the advantage. The two of them were beating up thethoroughly disoriented and demoralized Koko whenDr. Klinghammer intervened, guiding Koko to a holding penwhere he would be safe until morning.

After Attila and Tornado deposed Koko, we eventually had totake him out of the pack and move him over to East Lake.Though he lived briefly with two other wolves, he was livingalone when stricken with a systemic infection that did notrespond to treatment. He was euthanized and died at the ageof twelve on November 12, 1984, in the company of humanfriends.

Editor: Catherine Ozment