In 2023, a conservation group (group that helps protect land, water, or other resources) in British Columbia, Canada had a mystery to solve. They put crab traps (something used to catch animals) in the water. Something was damaging the traps. The bait (food used to catch an animal) in the traps was also gone. What, or who, could be doing this?
Some of the traps were completely underwater. Because of this, the group suspected otters or seals. They put out video cameras to learn more. They were surprised by what they found!
A video showed a female wolf bite down on the rope attached to a trap and pull it toward the shore. The wolf dropped the rope, moved closer to the trap, then pulled the rope again. She repeated this until the trap was at the water’s edge. Then, the wolf grabbed a cup filled with bait from the trap. It ate the fish and other meat in the cup. Success!
Scientists watched the video. They had a lot of questions. How had the wolf figured out how to do this? Did she learn it from watching humans? Had she learned by trying it many times? Was this an example of tool (an object used to do a task) use?
Does the rope count as a tool? Scientists are still deciding. But, even if the rope isn’t a tool, scientists agree that the wolf understood what she was doing to get to the trap. Scientists will continue to observe this behavior, ask more questions, and learn more about how wolves think!
What Do You Think? What questions do you have about the wolves pulling in the crab traps?
Photo Credit: (t)Jess Latimer/Shutterstock, (b)LadyLensArt/Shutterstock
