WATCH: Rare sight of wolves hunting down beaver in northern Minnesota
VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK, Minn. -- Researchers in northern Minnesota are calling a video of wolves hunting down a beaver a rare and unique observation into the animals' behavior.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project on Wednesday posted the video of the "amazingly lucky" trail cam capture. The video, which appears to be from winter, shows wolves attempting to catch a beaver in its dam. The beaver is seen darting away at the last second and appears to escape by entering the water.
"We cannot overstate how rare such observations are," the Voyageurs Wolf Project said in a tweet. "Although we have deployed many cameras on beaver dams, we have never captured anything remotely like this before. So you can imagine our excitement when we saw this."
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Researchers say the first recorded observation of wolves hunting and killing a beaver happened in Quebec in 2015.
"Given how rare this was, we worked with the person who recorded the video and wrote a scientific paper on the observation trying to glean as much insight as we could from it," researchers said.
The video will help with understanding the mechanics and nuances of how wolves hunt and kill beavers, according to researchers.
1.) The wolf was barreling toward the beaver and yet the beaver did not move until the wolf was super close. Could possibly be related to the beaver’s poor eyesight and inability to determine what was coming at it, or the dam may have blocked the beaver from seeing the wolf.
— Voyageurs Wolf Project (@VoyaWolfProject) July 12, 2023
In June, the research group released a video of wolves catching fish in northern Minnesota, another rarely-viewed occurrence.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project, based in northern Minnesota, uses GPS tracking collars and trail cameras for an unparalleled look into how wolves relate to their surroundings. The project's funded by Minnesota's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.