When a wild wolf encounters a potential meal, its instinct is usually to pounce – but researchers in western Canada have recorded at least one wolf taking a strikingly different approach.

The behavior captured on video in a remote part of British Columbia province shows a wolf completing multiple steps to retrieve a crab trap from deep water, sophisticated behavior researchers say marks "the first known potential tool use in wild wolves."

"I couldn't believe my eyes when we opened up that camera," said Kyle Artelle, an environmental biologist at the State University of New York.

The discovery, detailed in the journal Ecology and Evolution , came partly by accident.

For several years, crab traps have been submerged in deep water in the area as part of a program to eradicate European

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