It seems that as a species develops more emphasis on brains, it also produces more assholes.

[irenetherogue@beige.party]

@alice mainly that the thing that makes them invasive in the northern Atlantic ocean is that their local prey is the young of all the local fish, such that there are hardly any of the local fish at all anymore, in particular they prey on the young of the creatures that naturally/normally clean and maintain the local reefs. Plus, theyre aggressive.

[overtondoors@infosec.exchange]

@alice No-see-um: An asshole with jaws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae

[minego@pdx.social]

@alice It takes a brain to be an asshole.

I mean, no one calls a lion an asshole for killing a zebra. That's just survival. A lion doesn't know how to be an asshole.

I think you're absolutely right, but the same animals have the capacity to be selfless and caring.

[benjamincox@writing.exchange]

@alice My first thought was pigeons. Don’t know why…

[autolycos@beige.party]

@alice swine

Donkeys

Turkeys

Geese

Bison

[syntaxseed@phpc.social]

@alice Funny you ask this. We have two Guinea Pigs. They're sisters. Both cute as heck and dumb as rocks. But one is a real jerk. Bullies her sister, nips at fingers, steals food.

The bonus fact is - it used to be the other way around. When they were young the other sister was the jerk. One aged into a sweetheart & the other into a crotchety grump.

So attitude is fluid among #GuineaPigs apparently.

(Photo is Kaysah - the nice one.)

[bthylafh@nerdculture.de]

@alice Houseflies. Nearly forty years later I vividly remember a sleepless night at my grandparents' caused by this utter bastard who flew a pattern from one corner of the room to the opposite and back, each time dive bombing my head. All goddamn night, every few seconds.

You'd best _believe_ I hunted this one the next day.

[meadow@lgbtqia.space]

@alice
A correlation between aggression and intelligence? You know, I believe it.

[abmurrow@hachyderm.io]

@alice OOH yes shrimp ARE all a bunch of assholes.

I used go go fishing with my dad a lot, and the first step to any fishing trip is to catch some bait.

Shrimp are great to catch in bulk but you better be brave if you want to handle them. They like just sort of chilling in the bucket, and they stay calm as long as nothing moves, but the moment you jostle the bucket or you stick your fingers in the water, it is ON.

They love to fight both other shrimp and any shrimp-shaped objects (ie, your finger) that enter their domain. Sometimes they'll suddenly go from 0 to 80 and just kick up a massive fight in the bucket. They have these stingers on their head that they use to stab each other and you if you're not careful. If you put minnows in the same bucket, the shrimp will kill them out of spite.

If you're unlucky enough to fall into a school of shrimp in the ocean, they'll go for you for sure.

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@alice counterpoint: elephants.

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@alice @jqmcd I actually feel like spiders are pretty cool. Like, they eat other animals, but that's just surviving as a predator. They don't go out of their way to be cruel, and when they hurt humans, it's usually our fault.

I say this despite having moderate arachnophobia. I appreciate them...just abstractly and from a distance and oh god oh god don't come any closer!!!

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@Meznor @alice It's okay to punch nazi fish

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@alice @bielsubob

I really love the image of the goose pecking at Alice, and then they just slap the goose upside the face and it looks confused and offended.

[joscelyntransient@chaosfem.tw]

@alice on the other hand, in support of your point: crows. Crows are too fucking smart, hold a grudge, and will fuck you up if you have wronged them.

[dfx4509b@friendica.world]

@alice I don't know how intelligent they are, but yellowjackets are massive pricks, and they will chase you down if you so much as brush by their nest.

Oh, and brown recluses are straight-up hellspawn which leave necrotic bites, as in, if you get bit by a brown recluse, your skin can literally rot away around the bite area if not immediately treated by a medical professional.

Fuck brown recluses, they can go right back to the pit of hell they crawled out from.

On a happier note, jumping spiders are adorable though as are bumblebees and a lot of native bee species.

[hedders@mas.to]

@alice Otters. Adorable, squeaky agents of chaos. And total dickheads.

[vgoller@nrw.social]

@alice actually, I found hornets to be very relaxed and social compared to wasps. Couple years ago we had a wounded birch tree in the front yard and it was bleeding sap. Hornets liked that and there were always about a 10 to 20 hornets, big they were, at the wound sucking up the sap. The tree was close to the sidewalk and for weeks the hornets were active. No one got stinged. We watched the from close proximity, they completely ignored us.

[vgoller@nrw.social]

@alice Nazis and facists. They are raging assholes.

[jqmcd@sfba.social]

@JoscelynTransient @alice Spiders are awesome, I love ‘em. But they can keep coming at you, like little assholes…

[davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social]

@alice

I know octopi can roll up a tentacle and then rapidly unroll it to punch passing fish.

Apparently not hunting behaviour. Possibly just being intelligent dicks.