A newly published scientific study details what researchers believe is the first documented evidence of a wolf using a tool in the wild. Footage from a trail camera along the central coast of British Columbia, Canada caught a wolf in action, pulling a crab trap from the water and then eating the bait inside.
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The research and the footage recently published in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution. Kyle Artelle, one of the paper’s co-authors, said: “It’s not a surprise [wolves] have the capacity to do this. Yet our jaw dropped when we saw the video.”
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Evidence suggests this wolf (and possibly others) have been messing with the crab traps for some time.
“Recently, recurring damage to crab traps used by Haíɫzaqv Nation Guardians to control a European Green Crab invasion was investigated with remote cameras,” the researchers wrote in the study. “A wolf was recorded emerging from the water carrying a crab trap buoy, then sequentially pulling the attached line up the beach until an initially submerged trap emerged from the water. The wolf then extracted the bait cup from within and consumed the bait.”
Researchers believe the recorded behavior suggests “a sophisticated understanding of the trap,” as well as sophisticated cognition in general. Tool use among non-human animals remains relatively rare. However, scientists are realizing it’s not as rare as the community once thought.
Watch a wolf using a tool below, and read the full research study here.
Header stock image by RoseMaryBush/Getty Images
