Oh, I know very well @2024GarlicCloves that I am a member of the human species, and I can only apologise to Gaia and the rest of the animal kingdom about that.
I am not hypothesising about us being the most aggressive species, or about us being the only ones to commit mass murder (I do not consider a whale sucking in thousands of plankton at the same time, as being mass murder, they are just having their dinner!). What I am doing is relaying a rather unpleasant truth. We humans are the most aggressive creatures on the planet.
I did not go on to talk about Bonobos exactly because they are not considered to be one of the most aggressive creatures on this planet. I was not, and am not, writing a thesis (which is just as well as I only have 5 'O' levels, so have no chance against all the amazingly intelligent women on this site, which probably includes you as well Garlic) so I have no intention of making this response even longer by adding all of the good qualities that at least some - and hopefully most - humans have.
I started my initial reply to someone else, who like me, likes Chris Packham, and I was trying to explain to other Mumsnetters a bit about why I like him, as they were saying that they didn't like him. I was just trying to point out that he has a very good heart, better than some other humans who really have a range of quite dark hearts, to totally dark and evil hearts - ok, brains if we want or need to be pedantic - but I didn't actually want to take it that far. For clarity (hopefully) I am not accusing any Mumsnetters of even having "quite dark hearts". Anyway, it was through Chris Packham that I expanded this thread to include my thoughts on one of the main differences between humans and other animals. I am certainly not trying to claim that Chris holds any of the same views that I do!
Back to how I disagree with you Garlic, and I think I might owe you an apology on the "mass murderer" front, because I wasn't at all clear by what I meant by "mass" murders.
By mass murderers I mean a person that kills at least 3, but sometimes many more people in one actual event. I am not talking about serial killers, who kill many people over a longitudinal period of time.
I don't believe that an animal can murder at all, because I don't believe that there is any animal that wakes up at the beginning of it's day, and thinks to itself:
"right I am totally fed up with Mr Badger who lives in the hole just on the otherside of that little hillock over there. Now what should I take with me when I go to kill him? Maybe I only need to sharpen my teeth and claws? Yes, I think that will do. Now when should I go? I think straight after I have had a light lunch, as he was up all night, so should be fast asleep by then..."
So, as I believe to commit murder one needs to have both the ability to intend to kill, and the ability to have planned the murder in advance (which I don't believe even a wiley fox can do - even though when you see so many dead hens in a coop, it certainly, and very sadly, looks like a mass murder has taken place) which I also don't believe any nonhuman animal can do, therefore imo a nonhuman animal cannot commit murder. However, I do know that it is a contentious issue amonst experts in different fields of expertise, and I am no expert, are you @2024GarlicCloves?
PS. I am very glad that I managed to give you a laugh-out-loud moment in your day - even though it was at me, rather than with me 🙈