While researchers are divided on the conclusion, the behavior shows wolves may be smarter than we thought.

In 2023, crab traps along the coast of British Columbia started showing mysterious damage. The Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation, an Indigenous group, had set them up to capture destructive, invasive European green crabs. Sometimes the traps were destroyed. Other times their nets had been torn. Whoever raided the traps always went after the plastic bait cups, which held bits of herring or sea lion carcass. It looked like the work of wolves or bears, but many of the compromised traps stayed submerged during the low tide, so maybe sea otters?

To find out, scientists, in partnership with the Heiltsuk Guardians, a group that monitors the territory and conducts their own research, set up a camera pointed at an underwater crab trap in May 2024. The camera captured a wolf nabbing bait from a crab trap. In a new study describing this behavior in the journal Ecology and Evolution, the researchers suggest that the incident might be the first reported tool use by a wild wolf.

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