VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK, Minn. — Researchers in northern Minnesota have described a video of wolves hunting a beaver as an infrequent and exclusive animal behavior.
On Wednesday, the Voyageurs Wolf Project released video of the “incredibly lucky” tracking camera capture. The video, which appears to date from winter, shows wolves looking to catch a beaver in their prey. It is noticeable that the beaver jumps at the last moment and it turns out that it escapes when entering the water.
“We cannot overstate how infrequent these sightings are,” the Voyageurs Wolf Project said in a tweet. “Although we have deployed many cameras in beaver dams, we have never captured anything like this from a distance before. So you can believe how excited we were when we saw that. “
RELATED: Wolf Project Travelers Provides Unparalleled Insight into How Wolves Relate to Their Environment
Researchers say the first recorded sighting of wolves and the killing of a beaver occurred in Quebec in 2015.
“Given the rarity of this situation, we worked with the user who recorded the video and wrote a clinical paper about the sighting to extract as much data as possible,” the researchers said.
The video will allow us to perceive the mechanisms and nuances of how wolves hunt and kill beavers, according to the researchers.
In June, the research organization released a video of wolves catching fish in northern Minnesota, an event rarely noticed.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project, in northern Minnesota, uses GPS tracking collars and tracking cameras to obtain unprecedented information about dating between wolves and their environment. The task is funded through the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.