A trail camera caught “exceptionally rare” footage of a wolf hunting a beaver in the greater Voyageurs National Park area of northern Minnesota. The Voyageurs Wolf Project operates trail cameras in this area and frequently shares interesting footage of wolves and other animals native to Voyageurs. In this case, a wolf stalked and killed a beaver—a scene the nonprofit says has only ever been captured on camera “a handful of times ever.”
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“Now, this isn’t because this behavior is rare—wolves kill beavers in many ecosystems frequently,” the Voyageurs Wolf Project clarifies in its Instagram post sharing the footage from last April. “Rather, the rarity is due to the challenges of observing this behavior in the densely-vegetated/forested areas where beavers live. Observing these events requires being in the right spot at precisely the right time . . . and that is a very tall order and almost never happens.”
The video shows a breeding female from the Wiyapka Lake wolf pack, which the nonprofit says is “clearly pregnant” in the video. The wolf then demonstrates a sit-and-stalk hunting strategy, which is effective for beavers but is a very different strategy than a wolf would use to hunt other prey, such as a deer or moose.
After the wolf makes the kill, her mate joins her down by the pond before the huntress emerges with her prize.
Watch a wolf hunt a beaver here (Note: The actual kill occurs offscreen):
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