Honest work does not pay

Hyenas, snails, birds, barks, otters, crabs, monkeys, and even the wrongly idealized ants. Nature is full of thieves.

[Photo by Disha Sheta, Pexels]

Many animals don’t have to steal, but this way of life benefits them more than honest work. This is what small American bark beetles do. The more industrious of the two cut down huge quantities of mountain grasses and herbs from late summer onwards and dry them on rock shelves to form a sort of small…