Can Animals Be Too Smart for Their Own Good?
Sometimes, clever creatures can really get under our skin. Meet the amazingly adaptable creatures that people dub a “nuisance."
They say nobody likes a know-it-all, and that seems to be true for some very intelligent, and sometimes very annoying, animals.
Take raccoons, for example. Being smart enough to adapt to our human-centric world is pretty incredible, but for them it can be a liability. Their intrusions on our gardens and garbage get them a bad rep at best—at worst, it gets them killed by humans who see them as pests.
A recent study published in the journal Animal Behavior suggests that the wildlife best suited to living among us—the most flexible, adaptable, and clever—are exactly the ones that end up in conflict with humans.
And that made us wonder: What are “nuisance” animals, and how can studying their intelligence help
