Apparently animals have had enough of hanging around in previously pristine streams and woodlands, waiting to get hunted or bulldozed or starved out by climate change. Instead, they’re learning to use our human technology against us. So far they can only send gibberish texts, but soon. SOON.
Exhibit A: A fox in Norway stole 16-year-old Lars Andreas Bjercke’s cellphone and transmitted the following secret message: “Jlv In ø \ a0ab 34348tu åaugjoi zølbmosdji jsøg ijio sjiw.” The recipient had no idea what it meant, as he doesn’t speak fox, but clearly he just intercepted an encoded command. Foxes have mastered typing text messages but not sending them.
To be totally fair to the thieving vulpine, Bjercke had installed an app on his phone that was specifically designed to attract foxes by making a sound like a rabbit. (This is what Norwegians do instead of Candy Crush.) It worked better than expected, and the fox ran off with its strangely square, hard rabbit prey. Bjercke tried to call the phone so he could locate it, but the fox was already too tech-savvy — it was just like “huh, this rabbit is ringing, better answer it.” Within hours it had learned how to text Bjercke’s friends.
Bjercke caught the theft on video:
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The phone still hasn’t been recovered, so the fox is probably up to at least level 18 of Angry Birds now.
