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 Today’s
popular ever-lovin’ Mother Nature is often more cruel than
loving, as nature observers can testify. “Natural brute beasts
(are) made to be taken and destroyed,” says Peter (2 Pet.
2:12). As a hunter and lover of wild meat dishes I have taken my
share too, though not without realistic concern for conservation
principles. I have watched animals tear one-another apart,
snakes swallow live frogs, and beautiful birds peck another to
death. Nature isn’t “nice”.
But
survival tactics have also produced some touching scenes. A
hunting buddy told me of watching helplessly, through
binoculars, as a large coyote maneuvered to get at a new-born
antelope fawn. The doe, still weak from giving birth, pivoted
like a cutting horse, trying to keep between the predator and
her young. It seemed a losing battle until a buck antelope
appeared on the horizon, quickly took in the scene, and
maneuvered himself in between the coyote and the doe. With swift
head-down lunges, he kept the coyote occupied until the doe and
fawn were safely gone. Then he tossed his head in final salute,
and ran off into the setting sun — fitting end to a genuine
wild-west drama. Pass the popcorn and learn a lesson from that.
If
you like variety, here’s one I heard on
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my last trip to
Arizona. One hunter was watching a doe move slowly down a game
trail on the far side of a canyon when he became aware of a
cougar crouched in a tree, waiting to spring on the doe. As the
lion leaped for the kill, something alerted the doe and she
jumped aside and ran down the slope. The big cat screamed wildly
at missing his prey and then, to the observer’s surprise,
jumped back into the tree, crouched, and sprang screaming to the
trail again. He then wheeled, reentered the tree, and for the
third time made the screaming fruitless leap to the ground.
By
the time the startled hunter remembered the rifle in his hand
the cougar had gone into the brush. There was nothing left to do
but collect his nerve and ponder what he had just seen. Did the
mighty cougar have a childish “temper fit” because he had
missed his prize? Maybe! But when a grown lion makes such a
failure, and does not give chase, I suspect it was a very old,
or blinded, cat.
Or,
we might claim he had the true Christian’s spirit: i.e.,
acknowledge error, practice to improve, then seek another
opportunity to “try again!”
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