To Create or Maintain

Complicit in murder?  Murder, within the species, is wrong.  Instinctively, most of us will rally around that idea.  One animal, eating another however, is the law of the jungle.  Humans are likely the only animal that can choose whether or not to be a carnivore.  A fox, for example can’t choose to graze.  He or she needs to prey upon some other animal, such as a squirrel.

A fox showed up here the other day and I must say I felt sorry for the creature.  She darted unsuccessfully after one or another squirrel and eventually trotted off with nothing to show for her efforts.  I noted that her fur didn’t seem glossy and she seemed dangerously thin.  Later the squirrels as if in mockery, returned to lawn to forage the seeds I’d lain out so that I might watch the feeding from my window. 

When I was a teen, I used to have tropical fish tanks.  I stocked them with freshwater cichlid’s in the main.  If you want to feed an Oscar or a Managuense, you can’t sprinkle fish food on the top.  They need to eat other fish.  So you buy goldfish every week and dump the hapless new arrivals, who would be happy to eat up fish food flakes, into the tank and within moments they have all been consumed.  Objectively fascinating, to watch them eat, I’m not sure I’d want to create or maintain such an environment today. 

I’ve been throwing seeds out on this particular patch of lawn all winter because I wanted to watch the birds feed and I wanted the squirrels to have something else to eat besides the content of my feeders, but to be honest I was also interested to see if all these birds and squirrels would attract predators, like hawks or owls or indeed foxes to make an appearance as well. 

Not long ago, I looked up from my typing to see the orange fox again, chasing after the squirrels as they scattered.  This time, she caught one.  Down in front of the cedar tree one hapless critter fell to her snapping jaws.  Alas, the end wasn’t quick.  She shook it around and snapped again and then stood watch over it.  Two or three times the intrepid squirrel tried to dart off, only to be snapped up again.  Eventually she took her prey and made for the woods.  And, when the coast was clear, without much of any ceremony for their fallen comrade the rest of the squirrels were soon back to inspecting the lawn for sunflower seeds. 

Monday, 5/04/20