You know how you say… “Now I’ve Seen Everything”. I know I have said that many times when I see something that strikes me as odd or unusual or shocking and it was something that I had never seen before. Well, recently, I saw something that absolutely made me say… “Now I have seen everything”. This was odd, unusual and shocking at the same time. I saw a video from You Tube dealing with Arctic Geese chicks. If you haven’t seen this, please check it out.
The Arctic Geese couple build their nest at the top of rock outcroppings that are impossible to get to unless you are a bird. They put their nest on the top of these things and the nest is, for the sake of this article, a thousand feet from the ground. In the video we see baby Geese leaving the nest. Technically they walk out of their comfortable nest into oblivion. They step off and because they are babies, do not know how to fly, so they fall a thousand feet. Sometimes they hit other rock out cropping’s on the way down and bounce sideways to hit yet another rock and so on. This fall seems to take forever. I am sure it is only about 10 or 15 seconds. Really? What could possibly be going through the chicks mind? They just committed suicide and didn’t even know it. I mean there was no opportunity to leave a note or anything else related to your typical suicide. What did their mother and father say to get them to walk -out of the nest? I am not going to speculate. Maybe they encouraged them or told them that everything would be ok. How could this possibly be ok? It appears that the chicks look before they fall but maybe their eye site isn’t that developed so maybe they don’t realize that the first step is a 1000 foot-fall.
To me these parents are at least guilty of reckless endangerment. I mean they could pose for pictures and become the poster birds for chick abuse. Now the event included three chicks. Each fall is different. Maybe the wind changed or maybe the randomness just led to different fall patterns, I don’t really know. I do want to tell you that one of the three actually survived. I still don’t know how that was possible. I guess the thing that bothers me is that these parents did not have a plan. I mean is this a plan. When the chicks are able to walk out of the nest they must fall. It is a crap shoot regarding whether they live or die. That to me is not a real plan. I would think that just because their parents did it doesn’t mean that they should. Let’s face it these parents probably also took the fall themselves and survived so maybe it’s a bit of retribution. Getting even, so to speak. Maybe they’re not as clueless as it appears at first glance. These may be very angry birds trying to finally get even. I am probably wrong.
Let’s go with it is nature’s way. Cruel as it may seem… life goes on, and in the case of one of these chicks, that happens to be true. Please go to You Tube and watch this… you cannot look away. You may not want to let your children see this, for their own good. I mean there is this thing called evolution… this is probably an integral part of the whole evolution thing for Arctic Geese. I can’t help but attach some of my moral values, traditions and way of life to this event. Is there something wrong with finding this funny? I will not pass judgement either way. It is what it is and that’s that. I need to take a break. The only thing that even comes close to this is watching little baby turtles, who just hatched, make a run for it and try to get from the beach to the ocean without being eaten. I watched that once again on a National Geographic Video… the problem is that as upsetting as that was, I couldn’t look away. Let’s just agree that there are things in nature that seem to press the limits of… its nature’s way. I’m done with that.
Look on the bright side. We are not Arctic Geese. We generally have a plan for our offspring. We don’t build nests 1000 feet above the ground. We don’t expect our young to take that same walk at any point. I am not even going to go into the whole turtle thing. Just be glad that by virtue of birth we are human beings and are basically at the top of the food chain. That to me is a good thing. Don’t let nature cause you to make bad decisions regarding child rearing. Have a wonderful day and please, please protect your children at all times.
