We all love our furry friends, but some animals are known for getting into trouble with their playful and clever personalities. If you’ve ever had a pet or spent time around certain creatures, you know exactly what I mean!
In short, animals that tend to be intelligent, energetic, and social are often the biggest troublemakers. Their curiosity leads them to investigate and manipulate their surroundings, much to the chagrin of their human companions.
From stealing snacks to unlocking doors, let’s explore some of the most mischievous animals and their hilarious antics.
Raccoons
Notorious Thieves
Raccoons are well-known for their thieving tendencies, often breaking into homes, garages, and campsites to steal food. Their nimble paws and intelligence make them master manipulators able to unlock doors, unlatch containers, and discover even the best hidden snacks.
In fact, the Humane Society states that up to 40% of urban wildlife complaints and calls involve these bandits.
A raccoon’s mischief ranges from tipping over garbage cans to raiding chicken coops. Campers have awoken to shredded tents and missing food after a sneaky raccoon scoped out an easy treat. Their exploits have earned them a reputation for being cunning troublemakers who are not to be trusted around unattended food or belongings.
Incredibly Intelligent
Raccoons possess incredible intelligence compared to many animals. Studies have shown they can remember solutions to puzzles for over three years. Their brains even contain more neurons than a cat’s brain despite being smaller in size!
This intelligence fuels their ability to analyze and solve problems when seeking food and other rewards. Raccoons adeptly pick locks, unscrew lids, and learn to open latches in their quest for tasty morsels. Their smarts and persistence mean very little is safe when a raccoon is determined!
Master Manipulators
A raccoon’s cleverness makes it a master manipulator able to find vulnerabilities and exploit opportunities. Campers are often amazed to find even securely shut coolers and containers raided after a nighttime visit from one of these bandits.
Their manual dexterity allows them to pick complex locks and latches with ease.
Raccoons will also use flattery and charm to get what they want from humans. Their appearances as cute bandits begging for treats often convince soft-hearted people to hand over snacks and food. But raccoons take the treats and often return to cause more ruckus later!
Crows
Tool Users
Crows are considered one of the most intelligent birds when it comes to using tools. Studies have shown they can use sticks to poke into holes to retrieve food, bend wires into hooks to pull up buckets containing treats, and even slide cards together to form a shovel shape to dig through soil.
Their ability to innovate solutions for accessing food is quite amazing!
Researchers have discovered that crows retain the ability to use tools they create for future use. In captivity, crows have been observed stashing their tools away when not in use and retrieving them later on when needed. This suggests they have excellent long-term memory skills.
In the wild, crows often use cars as nutcrackers by dropping nuts on the road and letting the tires crack them open. They even seem to understand traffic patterns and will wait for a red light before hopping down to collect their prize. Talk about street smarts!
Play Tricks
Crows love to play tricks and games with each other. They have been observed sliding down snowy rooftops, apparently just for fun. Pairs of crows will also pass sticks back and forth in an aerial game of catch.
Crows are mischievous pranksters as well. They’ve been known to drop rocks into empty cans or containers to make loud noises for their own amusement. Some crows even tease cats by swooping low over them just out of reach or scolding noisy dogs that get too close to their nests.
Their intelligence and playfulness is a reminder that humans are not the only species that engages in play. We can enjoy their antics as examples of animals with rich emotional lives like our own.
Hold Grudges
If you threaten or harm a crow, they will remember you and hold a grudge. Researchers who capture crows for banding have to start wearing masks because the crows will scold them and dive bomb them in future encounters. Crows even teach their young who the “dangerous” humans are.
There are stories of crows spotting hunters that shot at them in the past and calling loudly to alert all the other crows in the area whenever that person walks by again. They don’t let the offense go easily.
While holding grudges and seeking payback seems petty from a human perspective, it shows how intelligent crows are in recognizing faces and remembering experiences. Their long-term memory and ability to communicate warnings makes them formidable neighbors not to be underestimated!
Squirrels
Squirrels are some of the most mischievous yet entertaining animals out there. With their acrobatic antics, hoarding habits, and gnawing tendencies, these bushy-tailed rodents certainly keep us on our toes!
Acrobatic Antics
Squirrels are incredibly agile, scaling trees, fences, and power lines with ease. According to one National Geographic article, squirrels can leap distances 10 times the length of their body! They’ll fearlessly take running jumps, spiraling in midair to latch onto a nearby surface.
One minute a squirrel is scampering along the ground, the next it has vanished up a tree trunk like an Olympic gymnast. 😲 Their aerial acrobatics don’t always go as planned though. We’ve all seen the viral videos of a squirrel misjudging a leap and spinning out of control!
😆 Still, with sharp claws that can grip bark and super fast reflexes, squirrels recover from crashes most of the time. If only we were that resilient!
Stash Hoarders
Squirrels have an ingenious habit of hoarding or “stashing” food for winter. They bury nuts and seeds in scattered holes or piles of leaves to dig up months later when food is scarce. According to LiveScience, squirrels create complex mental “maps” noting the locations of hundreds of stash sites!
😮 What’s more, a 2021 University of Michigan study found urban squirrels have larger territories with more hoards compared to rural ones. City environments offer them a veritable buffet! With all that bounty to recollect, perhaps their impressive memory isn’t so surprising.
If only we humans could find what we buried with such success rates! 😄
Destructive Chewers
While burying and retrieving nuts demonstrates squirrels’ cleverness, their gnawing habits reveal a naughtier side! Squirrels just seem hardwired to chew, be it stripping tree bark, nibbling wires, or tunneling holes in attics to nest in.
According to pest control company Orkin Canada, squirrel damage costs homeowners nearly $240 million per year! 😱 Pesky squirrels will chew through virtually anything, from wooden decks to rubber insulation on vehicles.
And sadly for gardeners, squirrels view flower bulbs as an irresistible treat perfect for stashing. While squirrels certainly can be a nuisance, it’s hard not to admire their spirited resourcefulness! We may install better insulation and plant bulbs deeper, but crafty squirrels will surely find new ways to outwit us.
😅
Monkeys
Curious and Social
Monkeys are some of the most inquisitive animals on the planet. Their curious nature leads them to investigate anything new or unusual they come across. This trait likely developed to help them identify food sources and potential threats in their complex social groups.
Most monkey species are also quite social. They live in troops that can number over 100 individuals depending on the species. This social structure requires sophisticated communication skills using vocalizations, body language, and facial expressions.
Young monkeys learn early on to interpret these social cues to avoid conflict and foster relationships.
Grabby Hands
A monkey’s hands are perfectly designed for grabbing branches, food items, and other objects with precision. Their opposable thumbs allow them to grasp items with ease. This dexterous ability often gets them into trouble, however.
Monkeys are notorious thieves. They will brazenly steal items from humans as well as raid crop fields and orchards. Some monkeys even know how to open doors and unlatch gates. Their thievery is likely an extension of their curiosity and resourcefulness.
But it sure does cause headaches for their human neighbors!
Trouble in Groups
While monkeys can be entertaining to observe, it’s important to be cautious around large troops. Though individual monkeys may seem harmless, when they band together in big numbers they can become dangerous.
Some tips when encountering big monkey troops:
- Keep your distance and avoid prolonged eye contact
- Don’t show your teeth or make aggressive gestures
- Watch out for babies – mothers will defend them fiercely
- Secure food items and shiny objects like jewelry
- Back away slowly if they start approaching
Monkeys thrive living closely with humans in many Asian and African cities. But conflicts do occur due to their audacious and unpredictable nature. Being respectful of their space and understanding their behaviors allows peaceful coexistence with our acrobatic and entertaining primate cousins.
Parrots
Expert Escape Artists
Parrots are incredibly intelligent birds that are known for being expert escape artists. Their strong beaks allow them to chew through cages, undo latches, and lift locks. Some parrots even learn to mimic human speech and will call out phrases like “I want to go outside!”
when they want to be let out of their enclosure. Parrots have very strong flying abilities, so if they do manage to get loose, they can quickly get far away. Many parrot owners have tales of stepping out of the room for just a minute only to return and find their feathery friend has flown the coop!
Some clever parrots have even learned how to ride on top of automatic vacuum cleaners around the house to aid in their great escapes.
Chatty and Demanding
Parrots are extremely vocal birds that love to chat it up. They can mimic human speech and often learn large vocabularies of hundreds of words. Some parrots endlessly babble phrases they’ve learned, while others seem to understand context and will appropriately comment on their surroundings.
Parrots are known to vocalize their demands quite insistently. If they want food or attention, they will recurrently call out “I want a cracker!” or “Pet me!” repeatedly until their needs are met. Some parrots even dance and display other amusing antics when they want something.
While all this chatter is endearing, it can also drive owners crazy at times!
Like to Make Noise
Parrots are inherently noisy birds that like to vocalize often in loud, raucous calls. In the wild, parrots are very social and use their boisterous voices to communicate across long distances in dense rainforest environments.
This natural tendency translates to pet parrots happily squawking, shrieking, and screaming frequently just for the fun of it. They are especially noisy first thing in the morning when vocalizing their excitement for their day ahead.
Parrots also make a lot of noise playfully chewing and shredding wood toys. All this cacophony can quickly give owners a headache! However, contrary to their loud reputation, some parrot species can also be trained to use their indoor voices and speak softly.
Conclusion
As we’ve explored, many clever animals like raccoons, crows, squirrels, monkeys, and parrots have a mischievous streak. Their intelligence, curiosity, dexterity, and social nature often lead them to make trouble and perform hilarious antics.
While their naughty behaviors can be frustrating at times, we have to admit their playful personalities also make them incredibly endearing. Learning more about what motivates certain creatures can help us coexist with our furry and feathered friends.
Their antics certainly make life more interesting!
