In A First, Wolf Caught On Camera Using Rope To Pull Crab Trap, Eat Bait

A female wild wolf on the central coast of British Columbia was caught on video pulling a crab trap out of the ocean and eating the bait, marking the first documented case of tool use by the animal.

The traps belonged to the Heiltsuk Nation, an indigenous community. They set these traps to control the European green crab, an invasive species harming local animals and plants. This programme is part of their environmental conservation efforts.

Kyle Artelle, an assistant professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and co-author of a new study, said, "The traps were starting to get damaged, and the damage did look like it could have been a bear or a wolf.

Researchers initially assumed that deep-water traps could not be accessed by wolves or bears because these animals do not dive.

The study showed that some crab traps are set in shallow water, where a bear or wolf could easily reach them. Other traps, however, are in deep water. Even when the tide is at its lowest, they're underwater and not easy to reach. "The assumption was it couldn't be a bear or a wolf, because they don't dive. So, who could it be?"

To identify this, researchers placed cameras to see and identify the animal getting the crab traps. They thought it might be an otter or a seal. Instead, the camera showed a wolf swimming to shore carrying a floating buoy in her mouth.

She dropped the buoy on the sand and grabbed the rope attached to it. Next, using the rope, she pulled the crab trap out of the water. Later, the wolf dragged the trap to a shallow spot and opened it to eat the bait, a piece of herring.

Incredible. This wolf sees a buoy out in deep water and recognizes it's attached to a crab trap filled with food as bait. She swims over to the buoy and pulls it to shore, knowing it'll drag the trap w/ bait out, too. Voila, free meal.

Animals use tools, just like us. pic.twitter.com/Sf55r8XS4g

— Wayne Hsiung (@waynehhsiung) November 19, 2025

"We were amazed. It was not what we were expecting, to say the least," said Artelle, highlighting that the wolves might have learned about the traps either by watching humans drop them from boats, or by first finding them in shallow water when the tide was low and then figuring out how to get traps that were deeper.

"It's a sequence of behaviours that ultimately gets her towards that goal. It's problem-solving, and it's problem-solving exactly the way humans do it," he added.

Artelle says the wolf's actions seem very deliberate. Even though the trap was underwater and she couldn't see it, she wasn't just pulling randomly or playing around. Instead, she had a clear plan. She even stared at the end of the rope, watching carefully for when the trap would appear.

"Future research will answer questions about whether other wolves also learn to use a rope and whether this behavior becomes culturally transmitted within this population," said Marc Bekoff, an animal behavior expert and emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado.