Wild Wolves Show Potential Tool Use in British Columbia

Wild wolves and potential tool use

A wild wolf will normally pounce when it comes across possible food. Yet scientists in western Canada have documented one wolf using a notably different method.

Video footage from an isolated area of British Columbia shows the animal carrying out several actions to bring a crab trap up from deep water. Researchers say this advanced behaviour represents "the first known potential tool use in wild wolves."

"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.

Crab traps reveal sophisticated wolf behaviour

The finding, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, was made somewhat unexpectedly.

For a number of years, crab traps have been placed in deep water there as part of an effort to eliminate invasive European green crabs.

Working alongside the Heiltsuk First Nation, researchers noticed that the traps were somehow being pulled onto land and stripped of their bait.

As the traps were positioned in deep water and were never uncovered at low tide, the team initially believed a marine predator was responsible.

Cameras installed in May 2024 soon revealed what was happening.

A female wolf was filmed swimming to a trap before hauling its attached buoy back to shore.

She then drew in the rope connected to the trap. Once it was on the beach, she chewed through the netting to reach the bait.

The researchers described it as a "carefully choreographed sequence" rather than a wild predator forcefully chasing food.

Artelle called it "incredible behavior."

"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."

Researchers consider how wolves learn the technique

The researchers, including University of Victoria geography professor Paul Paquet, acknowledged that they cannot say how widespread this degree of sophistication is among wild wolves.

They suggested the wolf could have learned to bring the trap ashore through trial and error. Wolves in this remote region face fewer threats, including human danger, which may leave them with more opportunity to experiment.

© Agence France-Presse