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? Bears, otters, seals?
Since some of the traps were completely underwater, the group suspected otters or seals. They put out video cameras to get some insight. They were surprised by what they found!
A camera captured a female wolf using its mouth to grab a buoy (a floating object to mark a location) that was floating in the water, then pull the buoy and rope toward the shore. As the trap came out of the water, the wolf repeatedly dropped the rope, moved closer to the trap, then pulled the rope to eventually pull the trap to the water’s edge. Once the trap was onshore, the wolf grabbed a cup filled with bait from the trap and ate the fish and other meat in the cup. Success!
As scientists watched the video, lots of questions followed. How had the wolf figured out how to do this? Did she learn the behavior from watching humans pull in the traps? Had she learned it through trial-and-error (trying different ways to do something until one way works)? Was this an example of tool (an object used to do a task) use?
The definition of a tool is an important part of the discussion. Does the buoy or rope count as a tool? Scientists are still deciding. But, even if the rope isn’t a tool, scientists agree that the wolf showed “purposeful” behavior, meaning the wolf understood what it was doing to get to the trap. A second video showed a different wolf pulling a trap that was partially underwater on shore to eat the bait. Scientists will continue to observe this behavior and ask more questions to 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
