# What is the biggest thief in the animal kingdom?

> Robbery is a survival strategy, and some species have built an entire living out of it. Benjamin Franklin had opinions about one of them.

*By YPB Team · Published August 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-biggest-thief-in-the-animal-kingdom*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Raccoon** — score 1000/1000
   Opens bins, latches and coolers with hands dexterous enough to defeat most locks.
2. **Magnificent Frigatebird** — score 868/1000
   Harasses other seabirds in mid-air until they drop or regurgitate their meal.
3. **Common Cuckoo** — score 750/1000
   Steals the nest itself, leaving its egg for another species to raise.
4. **Eastern Gray Squirrel** — score 566/1000
   Robs rival caches and stages fake burials when it knows it is being watched.
5. **Bald Eagle** — score 500/1000
   Franklin called it a bird of bad moral character for robbing ospreys of their catch.
6. **Satin Bowerbird** — score 423/1000
   Steals blue objects, including from the bowers of rival males.
7. **Honey Badger** — score 423/1000
   Raids beehives and follows other predators to appropriate their kills.
8. **Black-backed Jackal** — score 423/1000
   Trails larger carnivores and takes what it can from a kill it did not make.
9. **American Crow** — score 333/1000
   Watches where other animals cache food, then digs it up later.
10. **European Herring Gull** — score 333/1000
   Takes food directly out of human hands on every coast it occupies.
11. **Rhesus Macaque** — score 333/1000
   Snatches phones and glasses at temples, and in Bali trades them back for fruit.
12. **Spotted Hyena** — score 227/1000
   Reverses the stereotype: often the hunter whose kill a lion takes.
13. **Octopus** — score 227/1000
   Raids crab pots, aquarium tanks and neighbouring dens for shells and food.
14. **Adelie Penguin** — score 227/1000
   Takes pebbles from a neighbour's nest while the neighbour is away.
15. **Great Skua** — score 100/1000
   Chases gannets until they give up the fish, and eats their chicks in the off season.

Tags: nature, animals, birds, behavior