pjharvey:

i’m reading the genius of birds by jennifer ackerman (amazing book) and today i learned that the first ever documented case of a bird making a tool to use as a weapon against another bird was a steller’s jay breaking off and sharpening a stick to wield like a lance at a crow that was taking too long at a feeding station the jay also wanted to eat at. the jay tried to stab at the crow but narrowly missed, the crow lunged back, the jay dropped the stick, and the crow picked it up with the sharp end pointing towards the jay and pursued it into the trees

this is delightful all the way through, but I think my favorite part is the jay’s apparent thought process “I am too impatient to wait for this crow to finish eating so I shall INVENT A WEAPON and build it from scratch right here so I can stab the slow bastard”

it slightly reminds me of that post about how long and how much work it takes to craft a whip by braiding grasses or whatever… and how funny that makes the story about Jesus getting so mad at the temple moneylenders that he went off and braided a whip to chase them out with.

never underestimate the power of crafts done in pure spite