B.C. wolves use line to pull up crab traps in first possible tool use by species

By Chuck Chiang Researchers have captured video footage of wild wolves in British Columbia pulling crab traps out of the sea by their lines to eat the bait inside, in the first evidence of possible tool use by the animals. A report released Monday in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution by researchers Kyle Artelle and Paul Paquet says they placed cameras on the beach aimed at Heiltsuk First Nation crab traps to work out what was repeatedly damaging them. The traps, set up near Bella Bella, on B.C.’s central coast, were being used to control the invasive European green crab, and some were in deeper water submerged at all times, leading researchers to believe the damage that started in 2023 was caused by marine mammals. “We were going, ‘Well,…

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