Oh buoy... so clever

Crafty wolf learns to fetch bait traps to steal herring

- BY GILES SHELDRICK Chief Reporter

AN ingenious wild wolf pulls a crab trap out of the water to eat the bait. Video captured the remarkable moment the animal swims to shore with a buoy in her mouth before dropping it on the ground.

Next, she grabs the line attached to the buoy and gently pulls it until a crab trap emerges from the water. She hauls it to the shore before chewing her way into a canister holding herring used as bait.

The accidental discovery came after traps set to stop the spread of European green crab - an invasive species ravaging local ecosystems - were being damaged in British Columbia, Canada.

Researchers working on an environmental programme were convinced it was not the work of bears or wolves because some were set deep and neither species can dive.