Teach a Wolf to Fish. By University Of Minnesota, Voyageurs National Park And Voyageurs Wolf Project. Nighttime footage of a wolf hunting freshwater fish in a river in Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park. Dec. 14, 2018

I got to know Natural Habitat Adventures while our company was operating Chan Chich Lodge in Belize. I was impressed with their guides, and with the photographic and video skills of the guests who they brought to the lodge. And all of them were deeply concerned about conservation. But I never saw anything quite like the video above. When you have nine minutes to spare, it is as satisfying as any nature footage as I have seen in a long time.  I thank Jim Robbins again for this article, whose focal video about wolves fishing (to the left above) is definitely worth watching:

Watch This Wolf Go Fishing

Yes, researchers in Minnesota have recorded wolves diving into a stream to grab a meal.

Wolves are thought of as red-meat eaters, but a team of biologists in northern Minnesota, near Voyageurs National Park, has documented a pack that often enjoys a meal of fish.

It is a rare glimpse of wolves catching and eating freshwater fish, although they have been observed eating spawning salmon along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska. The discovery was just published in the journal Mammalian Biology.

Wolves in Yellowstone have been known to chow down on trout, but it’s unclear whether they actually caught the fish or if the catch was already dead. “It is exceedingly rare, but they do it,” said Douglas Smith, the park’s wolf biologist.

Wolves were collared by the Voyageurs Wolf Project for research into pack territory and prey, primarily beaver but also deer fawns and moose calves. If wolves spent more than 20 minutes without moving, researchers went to the site to see if they were eating and if so, what it was.

Tom Gable, a doctoral student working on the project, noticed from GPS data that wolves from a pack named Bowman’s Bay were spending a lot of time near a stream. He made a trek into the forest to see why.

When he arrived, he found a wolf on the bank of the stream…

Read the whole story here.