A remote trail camera in Alberta, Canada, has captured nighttime footage showing a wolf running off with another camera.
The footage is amusing in that viewers can track the purloined camera in the wolf’s muzzle because of a bright light detected by other trail cameras.
The cameras are monitored by the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS), which conducts research on wild horses.
“In case there was any doubt about who ran off with the trail camera, the evidence is a bit telling,” HAWS joked on Facebook.
HAWS informed followers that it retrieved the camera and “it was pretty chewed up but it kept recording.”
HAWS added that the infrared light from the camera is not visible to wolves or humans. The only reason viewers can see the light is because it was detected by other cameras utilizing the same technology.
“The trailcams pick up that light when they’ve been triggered by movement at night,” HAWS explained. “It was totally dark as far as the wolf could see.”
Two wolves are shown in the footage, including the camera thief, which ultimately trots in front of the camera that captured the footage.
The wolves belong to a pack of seven that “are picked up frequently by our cameras as they pass by our research areas for wild horses,” HAWS told FTW Outdoors.
It was not clear why the wolf removed the camera from its anchor but several viewers joked, before being educated on the invisibility of infrared light, that it might have needed a flashlight.