10.12.2008

Circle of Life

I've been watching some of Discovery's Planet Earth. On one hand, I love seeing the beauty of nature and life. On the other hand, life out there is Tough (with a capital T). Yes, I know it's all necessary. The wild dogs need to gang up on the ibex for their dinner, otherwise they'd starve (and so would the ibex, once their numbers exceeded the ability of the environment to sustain them). I just hate seeing animals in distress. When the calf elephant get separated from his momma and follows her trail in the wrong direction, you know he's going to die, alone.

Oh great. Now they're showing the huddled masses of the male penguins protecting their eggs in the winter of Antarctica. Sigh. (Anyone remember seeing March of the Penguins?)

6 comments:

mattw said...

I watched a lot of nature documentaries when I was a kid. There was a time when my parents would put them on while we were eating dinner.

Those scenes of the hunt and animals doing something that will leave them doomed are tragic, but also fascinating.

Unknown said...

Cheer up! Antartica is warming up and those poor male penguins will be able to drop the eggs off their feet without the embryo freezing immediately the shell touches the ice. They will all even be able to trek less to reach open water and fish. Of course...., there are other problems, but one must look at the silver lining.

Mummy Grabill said...

LOL - I feel the same way. When I hear the narrator say "If the mother lion cannot find food for her young, they will not make it through the winter . . ." I say "No! Poor Mother Cubs and lion! How tragic!"

Watch the same scene with the narrator saying "If the gazelle cannot evade the hungry lion, most likely her fawns will die this winter . . ." and I say "No! Poor Mother Gazelle and fawns! How tragic!"

Kinda of can't win, can we! ;-)

Anne C. said...

Hee! Aileen, I had the same thought after I wrote the post. :)

And Brenda, nice "silver lining." ;)

Anonymous said...

We used to watch those too when I was young, although I haven't so much as an adult (I'm married to a sports fan!).

I especially remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and the unflappable Jim. There was some serious irony, lost on me as a child, in the fact that the show was sponsored by a life insurance company.

belsum said...

I loved Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom! Did you see the movie about those kids starting JTT from that Tool Time show? It was so good.

Sometimes it disturbs me to hear Kirk talking about his kitty killing bunnies or whatever but I figure it's better for him to not be sheltered.