[Arkcon]

Do you wear glasses SJ? If you do, remember, other animals don't.

To a species like us, with technology and a society to care for us in the event of a major accident, the bird's attack is trivial.

But wild animals are scared. Even the remote chance of minor injury means they're defenseless for a while. And being blind in one eye is a death sentence.

Are you still going to walk there? If you just decide you don't want to be hassled, the bird's "plan" is successful. It's not "formulating a plan" for a perfect success, just doing the best it can.

See, in the old days, when you watched something like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom or some such nature program, you always got this voice over how Nature provided animals with the Instinct to survive, and how it was always in perfect balance with their Environment.

Now we're getting a more balanced notion. This stuff is random. Like one time, lioness finds a den to give birth, as instinct dictates, it must be hidden from the rest of the pride until the cubs a strong enough for the rough and tumble of pride life. Unfortunately, she picked a spot over a spitting cobra's den. Oops. Gave birth, went to get a drink, came back, got blinded. She wandered for a couple days, injured, never found her cubs. Cubs have no instinct to look for her and starved. Whole thing was filmed, and people were up in arms about the cruel humans who didn't rescue the cubs.

[ May 26, 2004, 15:24: Message edited by: Arkcon ]