I thought dolphins was considered one of the more intelligent animals. And chimps one of the more intelligent apes. Maybe the level of cognition in animals correlates with being more of an a-hole?
The story about Australian magpies reminds me of an experiment they did on ravens where they had someone wearing a mask harass ravens and after a while they noted that 1. ravens tended to learn to be vary whenever a human in a mask approached and 2. this behaviour extended to ravens that had never encountered the mask-wearing harassing human, meaning the information spread via communication between the ravens.
Side-note: for once, I think I actually like that the thread has veered way off topic. Animal facts are fun.