When a wild wolf encounters a potential meal, its instinct is usually to pounce – but researchers in western Canada have recorded at least one wolf taking a strikingly different approach.<\/p>\n
The behaviour captured on video in a remote part of British Columbia province shows a wolf completing multiple steps to retrieve a crab trap from deep water, sophisticated behaviour researchers say marks “the first known potential tool use in wild wolves”.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when we opened up that camera,” said Kyle Artelle, an environmental biologist at the State University of New York.<\/p>\n
The discovery, detailed in the journal Ecology and Evolution, came partly by accident.<\/p>\n
For several years, crab traps have been submerged in deep water in the area as part of a program to eradicate European green crabs, an invasive species.<\/p>\n
Researchers, working in collaboration with the Heiltsuk First Nation, observed that the traps had mysteriously been dragged ashore and the bait removed.<\/p>\n
Because the traps had been set in deep water and never exposed during low tide, they assumed a marine predator was involved.<\/p>\n
They set up cameras in May 2024 and quickly solved the mystery.<\/p>\n
A female wolf was recorded swimming out and dragging the buoy attached to a trap to shore.<\/p>\n
She then pulled in the line attached to the trap. With the trap on shore, she chewed through its netting to access the bait.<\/p>\n
It was a “carefully choreographed sequence,” the researchers said – not a wild predator aggressively pursuing food.<\/p>\n
Mr Artelle said it was “incredible behaviour”.<\/p>\n
“This wolf showed up and she just saw a float and she knew the float was attached to a trap. She knew how to pull the trap up. She knew if she pulled the trap onto the beach, she could get food… Really intelligent, really incredible, sophisticated behavior.”<\/p>\n
The researchers, who included University of Victoria geography professor Paul Paquet, conceded they do not know how pervasive such levels of sophistication are among wild wolves.<\/p>\n
They noted the wolf may have figured out how to get the trap on shore through trial-and-error, stressing that wolves in the remote area are less exposed to danger – including from humans – and therefore may have more time to experiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a wild wolf encounters a potential meal, its instinct is usually to pounce – but researchers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-591479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115606664186583525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}