From \u201cthe very first watch of the video, it was like\u2014from my interpretation\u2014this is tool use,\u201d says Kyle Artelle, a study co-author and an ecologist at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York who was part of the team that set the traps. \u201cEvery motion is perfectly efficient,\u201d and the animal seemed to know the connection between the trap\u2019s parts. In another camera trap video, a different wolf is seen tugging a line attached to a buoy, and dozens if not hundreds of crab traps have been similarly damaged in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People have seen canids, the group that includes dogs and their kin, using tools in captivity. In 2012, ethologist Bradley Smith of Central Queensland University in Adelaide, Australia, and his colleagues shared\u00a0observations of a captive dingo<\/a>\u00a0dragging a table some 6 feet and then climbing onto it and grabbing an object that had been out of reach. The same dingo also moved a dog crate and stood on it, allowing him to see out of his enclosure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d says Smith, who wasn\u2019t involved with the new work, referring to those early dingo observations. At the time, the list of animals known to be capable of higher-order tasks\u2014going beyond using their instincts and simple reactions\u2014 was short, including primates, dolphins, elephants and crows. The dingo findings opened up new knowledge on canid capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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