Heiltsuk First Nation fisherman in British Columbia kept finding their underwater crab traps looted, even the ones out in deeper waters, so they asked researchers Kyle Artelle and Paul Paquet for help.
The pair of researchers set up cameras along the Bella Bella coast to keep an eye on the traps, figuring it must be some marine animal diving for the traps.
Here's what they found:
Yep, sea wolves (a subspecies of grey wolf that lives on a marine diet) were diving into the water, swimming out, dragging the trap buoys back to shore, and pulling the rope of the trap up until they could eat whatever was inside.
The CBC reports,
‘We had to pick our jaws off the floor,' Artelle said.
‘We know that they're really, really smart, but it hadn't crossed our mind that, oh, maybe a wolf is swimming out to the deeper traps and bringing the buoy to shore, pulling the line up just like a person would.'
The researchers think that perhaps the wolves found the traps at low tide, mentally connected the buoys and the ropes to food, and then taught the skill to other members of the pack.
Their findings were published in scientific journal Ecology and Evolution, as the first known use of tools by a wolf for hunting, and they've now added 24-7 cameras to the site and replaced the crab traps with a little hardier variety, so they can continue to study the wolves' behavior.
‘Some really special things are happening here, and we want to understand more about that. What else is happening on the ground? What else do these wolves have to teach us? And so that's a focus for the next decades as we explore more about wolves here,' Artelle said.
‘This is really just the tip of the iceberg.'
As for what the Heiltsuk First Nation fishermen are going to do about their crab fishing now that the area has become a wolf-study project site, no one knows.
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