A female wild wolf living on the central coast of British Columbia was filmed pulling a crab trap out of the ocean to eat the bait — a never-before-seen behavior that could constitute the first documented use of tools by a wolf.The traps were set by the Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation as part of an environmental stewardship program run by the indigenous community. The program centers in part on combating the spread of the European green crab, an invasive species that is ravaging local ecosystems.“The traps were starting to get damaged, and the damage did look like it could have been a bear or a wolf,” said Kyle Artelle, an assistant professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and coauthor of a new study about the discovery.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“For the traps that are in shallow water, that makes sense — a bear or wolf could just walk up to them. But some of them were in really deep water and not exposed even on the lowest tide. The assumption was it couldn’t be a bear or a wolf, because they don’t dive. So, who could it be?”To find out, the researchers set up motion-triggered cameras, thinking they might see an otter or a seal. Instead, one of the cameras captured a wolf swimming to shore with a buoy in her mouth before dropping it on the sand. Next, she grabbed the line that was attached to the buoy and pulled it until a trap emerged from the water. The animal continued to haul the trap toward the shore until it was in a shallow area, and then she broke open a canister containing the bait — a piece of herring.“We were amazed. It was not what we were expecting, to say the least,” Artelle said. “Folks who are lucky enough to spend time around wolves know they’re super smart, so the fact that they’re capable of doing highly intelligent things, in and of itself, isn’t surprising. But this kind of behavior has not been seen before.”Focused act …
