Footage of a hungry wolf performing a complex sequence of actions on a British Columbia beach may mark the first time tools have been used on a wild canid.
The wolf swam into deep water to retrieve a floating buoy attached to a submerged crab trap. Although the wolves could not see the crab traps, they seemed to know that the traps were there and how the human tools worked. Once back on shore, the wolf began winding a line that led to the trap, the scientists explained in a new research paper. Finally, when the trap emerged from the water, the wolf pried it open and ate the food inside.
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Prey-snatching wolves live within the Haizakub Nation Territory on British Columbia’s central coast. According to the Hysakow Wolf and Biodiversity Project, these wolves spend much of their time on the coast, and many rely on the ocean for food. This project is responsible for the new research, which Alter is helping to coordinate.
This new behavior was discovered as the Haizakuvu Guardians, an indigenous group conducting research and monitoring on behalf of the nation and the project, continued to discover crab traps being damaged by unknown predators. The crab traps are part of an effort to eradicate the invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas). This crab competes with native crab species and generally destroys Canada’s marine ecosystem, so it’s important to leave traps intact.
Initially, it was suspected that seals, sea lions and otters were responsible for the damage. Many of the traps were set deep in the ocean and were not exposed even at low tide, so it seemed likely that the culprit was a marine animal. But within a day of researchers setting up camera traps to identify the culprit in May 2024, the wolf was captured with red legs.
Wolves have long had a reputation for being intelligent, and the researchers said this footage may be the best example of their cognitive abilities.
“We realized on the first viewing that this was important,” Artel said. “People who know wolves have always known how smart they are, and the video here speaks for itself. It highlights this smart behavior and shows another side of the types of behaviors that wolves exhibit that we haven’t seen before.”
The seemingly advanced intelligence of wolves may not come as a surprise to owners of their domesticated pet cousins. The sophisticated behavior of dogs (Canis lupus Familyis) is well documented, helped by the fact that we spend a lot of time with them. Researchers have even compared some of the dog’s behaviors, such as learning the meanings of human words and gestures, to those of the famously quick-witted chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
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Researchers also believe dogs may use tools, as evidenced by behaviors such as moving chairs. [then jump on to in order to] Access food. The same may be true for dingoes, which have been observed manipulating furniture in captivity as well. However, the authors were unable to find any reports in which canids (members of the wolf family Canidae) were reported to use tools in the wild. This means this clever wolf feat could be the first instance of wolf tool use ever recorded on camera.
Tool use was once considered a unique characteristic of human intelligence. But scientists have steadily dismantled this idea by using tools to document nonhuman animals as diverse as chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). Of course, many animals do not need to use tools, so their behavior is not necessarily the most reliable indicator of superior intelligence.
There is debate among scientists about what exactly constitutes tool use, which obscures new findings. Researchers generally accept that tool use involves the manipulation of external objects in order to achieve specific goals with intention. However, research has shown that some behaviors, such as pulling on a rope, may be excluded from the definition if the animal is not considered to be involved in the orientation of the rope.
Wolves’ use of ropes to retrieve crab traps may be complex enough to be an exception to some researchers’ rope exclusion rules. The problem is that the authors of the new study don’t really know what mechanism is causing this newly observed behavior.
Although the wolves appeared to have a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between invisible traps and the buoys floating above them, likely derived from observing the Hiyazakubu guardians interacting with the traps, this study does not rule out the possibility that the wolves were using a much simpler cognitive process: trial and error.
Currently, camera traps permanently installed in the crab-hunting area of Hayazakuv have not yet captured a second incident in which a wolf pulls up submerged bait. But researchers searched for some earlier clips that suggest one camera got tantalizingly close. The camera footage begins with a dark wolf walking toward an exposed line of crabs, then disappears off-screen. Once the wolf is out of view, the fishing line swings, and then the camera is activated to show the wolf inspecting the bait cups in the two traps that managed to reach the shore.
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