If you could save a sweet-looking baby chickadee/finch from the clutches of a Ra

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   Alastar Packerposted 10 years ago

   If you could save a sweet-looking baby chickadee/finch from the clutches of a Raven would you?
   
   Hearing bangs against my bedroom wall, by the time I investigated a Raven was just flying off with the sweet-looking baby bird for a big oak tree to enjoy its meal. The other small birds had but up a tremendous fight to save it but the Raven was too big. Where do you think our emotions and interventions in nature should begin and end?

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   sheilamyersposted 10 years ago

   My first reaction would be to go out and do everything I could to save the smaller bird. However, I'd stop before I got out the door. Unless the predator is an introduced species that shouldn't be here in the first place, I feel the best policy is to let nature run it's course. The raven has a much of a "right" to eat and not starve as any other bird.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi there ,Sheila. It's god awful to see the baby birds or mammals of nature fall to predators and it's in most of us to protect innocence so it sure is understandable to feel where your coming from. Do the same thing unless 4 something as u mention.

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   junksellerposted 10 years ago

   Our emotions are useful and powerful. They can inspire us to action. But that doesn't mean we can shut down our brains. Nature is a system that we can to an extent understand. If we care about it, then our main concern should be with its proper functioning, not the aesthetic value it provides us.
   
   Hunter/prey relationships are fundamental and critical elements to proper functioning. They are also symbiotic. Both hunter and prey rely on them. If we always saved chickadees from ravens, we wouldn't really be saving them, we'd be dooming the species to the misery of overpopulation, which can include resource/landscape destruction, hunger, disease, etc.
   
   Our sentimentality towards individual animals (e.g. liking cute things and having an aversion to death) is very often at odds with the natural system. Nature is death and is often ugly. The recent killing of the giraffe at the European zoo is a perfect example of emotions trumping a rational understanding of the broader system.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Very well thought out and said, junkseller. For every adorable thing in nature there is something not so. tis the way of the universe. Maybe Marius was different though for the circumstances... or not.

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      junksellerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I do love nature though. Lived in a tent for awhile. Used to get woken up by a great horned owl. It was glorious. There's a good chance that in reality, I'd save the chickadee too. I can't even stand when people squash bugs for no reason.

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   ahorsebackposted 10 years ago

   Hello Alastar !  Nature has to rule my friend , predator and prey , I too woud be emotionally attached and have witness many things in the wild that tryly try our conscience .   I, more than  once,  watched  two raccoons taking robins eggs from the nest on the  edge of the logs on my log cabin , it seems like every spring that would happen .  A coyote family  took all of the cats out of our neighborhood a couple of years ago,  including ours ,  It is difficult to be human and still be a prt of the natural world !  Be well  !

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Well hello, Ed! Yes it does have to rule and we both have seen things in nature that were hard to watch. Gotta be honest here and say if i'd made it out a bit sooner Mr Raven would have found lunch somewhere else that day...right or wrong.

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   Jackie Lynnleyposted 10 years ago

   Well guess I would just have to mess with nature and pop a rock at that Raven. They have their nature and I have mine. I am sure plenty of baby birds get killed and eaten behind my back so I would only feel good about the one I saved. No regrets about nature.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      After thinking on it more writing here I would have saved the baby bird that day. One sad tv docu had a group following a lion cub that had gotten separated from the pride. Every day grew harder for the folks as to what to do...or not do.

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes I have watched those where they cannot interfere (according to some unspoken rule) and I just don't see how they do it. Back to your story though; if it was a beautiful snake being eaten by that Raven I would let him have it! lol

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Alright now, Jackie, you know i dig snakes so watch it lol

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   Copper Manposted 10 years ago

   I would reason that the raven surely had missed a meal before and one more miss-a-meal day wouldn't hurt him all that much. By my saving the baby bird, it might grow up, get married and have a large family so the raven could really put on the feed bag.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting and unique thoughts on it, Copper Man,...and undoubtedly true.

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   bethperryposted 10 years ago

   Hey Alastar. I'm a big supporter of Mother Nature, and understand that the raven has as much a right to satisfy its instinct and needs as the next living creature. But this said, Nature also gives certain creatures the instinct to help and protect fellow creatures, especially the young. And as I respect what Mother Nature has given me, if She compels me to help a baby bird in distress, heck yeah I would attempt to rescue it, no questions asked.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Right in line with you, Beth, thank you. There are exceptions to every rule...even in nature, and especially when mr raven makes it up close and personal next to one's abode.

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   Genna Eastposted 10 years ago

   i would probably have intervened.  I do have one question:  Would the mother of the baby bird looked after her offspring once human hands had touched it?  I have heard that they do not.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Genna! We're both kinda up early for a Sun in the EST lol. Thank goodness most of us love babies from all stripes and that includes the ones with nests on our own home turf. The baby bird touching is a myth, like hoop snakes rolling about lol!

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   Penny Gposted 10 years ago

   No, because it is just the chain of life balancing things.

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      Alastar Packerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Penny, what you write and feel on the question is certainly true. But you know we humans can be pulled in different directions at times:)

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