{"id":148759,"date":"2025-11-19T18:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148759\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:44:07","slug":"wolves-seen-using-tools-to-get-fish-explorersweb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148759\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves Seen Using Tools to Get Fish \u00bb Explorersweb"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Green Crabs have inundated part of the coast of British Columbia. To combat this invasive species, the Ha\u00ed\u026bzaqv Nation, which manages the land, set up crab traps along all the beaches, baited with fish. In the last few years, though, the traps in the Bella Bella area have turned up with significant damage. So they set up cameras to catch the perpetrators.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately, the cameras caught remarkable footage of wild wolves feeding from the traps. A lone female wolf waded out at high tide and emerged carrying the trap\u2019s buoy in her jaws. Then she pulled on the line to reel in the crab trap. Once the trap was on the beach, she tore open the netting and removed the bait cup, eating the tasty bait inside.<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> explores the meaning of this behavior. Does this count as wolves using tools? How did they figure this out, the study asks, and just how much more common is tool use than we previously believed?<\/p>\n

\"wolf<\/p>\n

A wolf confidently trots toward a crab trap, which it knows holds food. Photo: Artelle et al<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How did they learn this?<\/p>\n

This is impressive behavior. It requires the wolf to connect and understand the relationship between a yummy fish treat, a rope, a buoy, and a (completely submerged) trap.<\/p>\n

It was an efficient process, too. The whole affair took just three minutes. The wolf moved with purpose, clearly understanding the sequence in which she had to perform certain actions.<\/p>\n

Researchers who studied the clips are still wondering how well the wolves really understand the mechanics involved in their trick. It\u2019s possible, the paper suggests, that wolves learned to retrieve and open the traps through trial and error, then memorized the steps without fully understanding them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible they learned from watching people. When resource management officials stopped to check the traps and switch out bait, they could have inadvertently shown observing wolves how to retrieve traps. But officials raise the traps from a boat; they don\u2019t drag them to shore.<\/p>\n

We also don\u2019t know how widespread this behavior is. Cameras did catch another individual retrieving a partially submerged trap, but so far, only the first female wolf has shown the ability to reel in a trap that\u2019s completely hidden underwater.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bait theft is a complex, multi-step process. This female wolf worked hard for that fish and I believe she deserved it more than the crabs. Photo: Artelle et al<\/p>\n

The \u2018tool use\u2019 debate<\/p>\n

Only rarely do researchers get a chance to observe wolf behavior in the wild<\/a>. Is this level of sophistication common across wolves, and is this just the first time we\u2019ve seen it? Thanks partially to the work of the Ha\u00ed\u026bzaqv Wolf and Biodiversity Project<\/a>, wolves in this area have minimal conflict with humans. Has their comparatively comfortable situation made them more confident and curious than other wolf populations?<\/p>\n

The biggest question is more one of definitions, though. Namely: Does this count as tool use? Since tool use is considered a key marker of intelligence, categorizing wolves as a tool-using species would be significant.<\/p>\n

The study cites \u201cusing an external object to achieve a specific goal with intent\u201d as the common understanding. By this metric, the clip is definitely evidence of wolves using tools. But the most current comprehensive work on animal tool behavior (titled, creatively, Animal Tool Behavior) sets a higher standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe animal must produce, not simply recognize,\u201d this definition runs, \u201c[the relationship] between the tool and the incentive.\u201d So, if the wolves were tying ropes to the cages themselves, then it\u2019d be tool use. Just using an existing rope doesn\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

Is it still tool use when animals appropriate human tools, rather than creating their own? The paper answers with an interesting analogy: The authors are writing their paper on a computer, \u201cwhose inner workings [they] do not fully understand.\u201d Nevertheless, their use of this tool is certainly evidence of higher thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Green Crabs have inundated part of the coast of British Columbia. To combat this invasive species, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-148759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}