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

[ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org]

@ColesStreetPothole @alice Scrub jays. Intelligent, but boy they are mean, hassle every other bird in the yard.

[symtrkl@anarres.family]

@alice vespids are the americans of pollinators

[alice@lgbtqia.space]

@tompearce49 but are they jerks or do they just have the capacity to punch things?

[bob_zim@infosec.exchange]

@tompearce49 @alice Yes. An animal with three names of other animals, all of which it isn’t. Rude before you even meet one.

[roknrol@beige.party]

@alice Did anyone find out the full story? Maybe those fish had it coming.

[bob_zim@infosec.exchange]

@bruce @MRutenberg @mattblaze @alice I think he meant how wasps will go out of their way to kill bees which aren’t harming or competing with them in any way.

[aura@sunny.garden]

@alice Hornets *especially*. I can usually just ignore a wasp but a hornet is just gonna do as much damage as it can because it hates everything (but mostly me).

[colesstreetpothole@weatherishappening.network]

@ai6yr I feel like a scrub jay could at least partially solve a crossword puzzle, though—that is, before they lit it on your barbecue grill and flew into the dry brush near your house. @alice

[roknrol@beige.party]

@alice What about crows and ravens? Are they assholes on purpose or just annoying to humans?

[jef@mastodon.social]

@alice A classic from birdsite:

Wild bee: just getting snack
Me: no prob bee

Mason bee: just make house
me: build a way B

Honey bee: jus sampling the lavenders
me: you know i got an assortment

Bumblebee: hey *bonk* I just *bonk* I h
me: *holds flower still*

Wasp: ILL SEE U IN HELL
me: TELL THEM WHO SENT U

[chris@mastodon.chriswiegman.com]

@alice pigeons…. At least if you’re in a city anyway.

[schrotthaufen@mastodon.social]

@bob_zim @bruce @MRutenberg @mattblaze @alice And hornets enslave bees. Super big, genocidal assholes.

[rupert@mastodon.nz]

@alice Male sea otters, if they can't find any female otters to rape, will rape baby harbour seals to death.
Yes, otters are quite smart, but this is human, or at least dolphin, level of assholery.

[ianamartin@thecanadian.social]

@alice Horses are smart but can be dickheads.

[symtrkl@anarres.family]

@alice Are octopi known to be assholes or are they the outliers here? Also pigs are absolutely smart and also assholes.

Having a hard time thinking of assholes on the other end of the spectrum. Bedbugs probably, they're little shitheads but right up there with amoeba on the "stimulus/response and no smarter" scale.

[rupert@mastodon.nz]

@alice Tarantula hawk wasps paralyse spiders, lay eggs inside them and the larvae eat their way out of the still-living spider.
Very low intelligence, extreme assholery.

[eleanor@chaosfem.tw]

@alice Scorpions are jerks. Most arachnids, including black widows, would prefer to go hide in the shadows rather than confront anything. But scorpions will put that tail up and come after you.

[bielsubob@infosec.exchange]

@alice Geese would probably land high on the asshole list.

[schrotthaufen@mastodon.social]

@alice I think comrade Capybara is quite based. https://time.com/6173837/capybaras-argentina-climate-change/

[joshsusser@autistics.life]

@alice probably some species of cichlid. those fish are surprisingly complicated.

on the other hand, hermit crabs are so polite that they will line up in order of size to wait for a shell of the right size to become available and then pass an empty shell down the line.