{"id":291457,"date":"2025-11-18T17:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291457\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T17:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:45:11","slug":"video-shows-a-wild-wolf-stealing-fish-in-a-first-possible-tool-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291457\/","title":{"rendered":"Video shows a wild wolf stealing fish in a first possible tool use"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a case of wolves<\/a> in fishermen\u2019s clothing as several of them have been spotted pulling crab traps from waters off Canada\u2019s <\/a>west coast in what scientists say may be the first documented case of the animals using a tool. <\/p>\n

Members of the Heiltsuk Nation, an Indigenous government in the province of British Columbia<\/a>, had placed the traps to capture invasive green crabs that destroy eelgrass habitats which support marine life and decimate the clam, herring and salmon populations the tribe depends on for food. <\/p>\n

But on their return, they found some of them had been shredded to pieces, according to a study published Monday in the journal Ecology and Evolution. <\/p>\n

The finger of blame was initially pointed at both bears and wolves, although some suspected marine mammals might have been behind the damage because the traps were submerged in deep water near the community of Bella Bella at all times. <\/p>\n

A team of researchers led by Kyle Artelle, a professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, and Paul Paquet, an adjunct professor at Canada’s University of Victoria, set out to solve the mystery. <\/p>\n

Within a day, they caught their culprit after installing remote, movement-triggered cameras overlooking the water. <\/p>\n

A video showed a female wolf diving into the water to grab a fishing float, carrying it to the beach and repeatedly tugging on the attached rope until the trap surfaced. She then tore it apart to eat the fish inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sequence appears to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the multi-step connection between the floating buoy and the bait within the out-of-sight trap,\u201d the study\u2019s authors wrote. <\/p>\n

While domestic animals, including dogs, have been previously observed using tools to their advantage, this is the first recorded case of such behavior in wild canids which include wolves, coyotes, jackals and foxes. <\/p>\n

Whether the trap-pulling behavior counts as conscious \u201ctool use\u201d remains a matter of scientific debate.<\/p>\n

Tool use involves understanding how to connect a tool, like a rope, to a desired outcome, such as a trap, Benjamin Beck, a comparative psychologist specializing in animal cognition and biodiversity conservation, told NBC News in an email Tuesday. <\/p>\n

While he acknowledged the wolf\u2019s behavior was \u201ca significant demonstration of cognitive complexity,\u201d Beck said \u201cstring-pulling is not tool use because the user (in this case the wolf) was not responsible for tying the rope to the trap.\u201d <\/p>\n

Beck, who has authored many scientific papers and books, including 1980\u2019s \u201cAnimal Tool Behavior,\u201d said that establishing that connection between the rope and the trap required more intellectual ability \u201cthan simply exploiting a pre-existing connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew filmed research shows a wolf pulling a rope to get food.K.A. Partelle and P.C. Paquet, Ecology and Evolution, 2025<\/p>\n

The authors themselves have also acknowledged that alternative explanations, such as simple trial-and-error learning, could account for the wild wolves\u2019 behavior.<\/p>\n

However, when animals perform \u201cmulti-step behaviors repeatedly and efficiently,\u201d even the simplest explanation for their actions may involve at least some \u201ccausal understanding\u201d on their part, they wrote, adding that this \u201cwould be assumed for a human in similar circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christina Hansen, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden, agreed that she would classify the actions as “string pulling.” <\/p>\n

Such behavior has been documented before in captive wolf populations, where animals cooperated in a string-pulling task for a reward, she said, adding that it would be interesting to see whether the behavior spread in the wild wolf population “by social learning.” <\/p>\n

“That is, if other wolves pick up this behavior from the wolf that started pulling in the traps,\u201d Hansen said. <\/p>\n

Regardless of the extent to which the wolf truly understood the trap\u2019s mechanics, the very act of appropriating human tools to achieve a goal is what the authors said was \u201cnoteworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also stressed that a on negative perception of wolves could now challenged by findings on their intelligence. <\/p>\n

\u201cI personally do not believe that intelligence, especially as we humans conceive it, should be a criterion for respect and conservation of wildlife,\u201d Beck said. \u201cBut cases like this are dramatic reminders of the wonders and connectedness of our natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a case of wolves in fishermen\u2019s clothing as several of them have been spotted pulling crab…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-291457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}