These B.C. wolves figured out how to pull up crab traps to get food [View all]

Researchers have captured video footage of wild wolves in British Columbia pulling crab traps out of the sea by their lines to eat the bait inside, in the first evidence of possible tool use by the animals.

A report released Monday in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution by researchers Kyle Artelle and Paul Paquet says they placed cameras on the beach aimed at Heiltsuk First Nation crab traps to work out what was repeatedly damaging them.

The traps, set up near Bella Bella on B.C.'s central coast, were being used to control the invasive European green crab, and some were in deeper water submerged at all times, leading researchers to believe the damage that started in 2023 was caused by marine mammals.

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Within a day of the cameras being set up in May last year, researchers captured footage of a sea wolf emerging from the water with a buoy hanging from its mouth.

The footage then showed the wolf dropping the buoy on the beach, picking up the exposed line, and pulling it until the crab trap emerged from the water.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-wolves-crab-traps-tool-use-9.6982536

Fascinating read, imo.