Would you intervene to save a wild animal from a predator?

Kermit.de.frog · 18-10-2020 11:33PM #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYP1Vd4dM_U

This clip got me pondering - would I intervene to help an animal in the natural world in this situation?

I don't know. It's nature at it's wildest extreme at the end of the day and it's an essential way the ecosystem works.

I mean yeah there's bambi but that snake might not get grub for a while due to that guy.

P.S that particular situation is also extremely dangerous to the guy interfering with the snake's brunch. What if it had anger management issues?

The chan chan man · 18-10-2020 11:33PM

No

Mules · 18-10-2020 11:34PM

Nope

Dravokivich · 18-10-2020 11:35PM

I don't want to be seconds.

salamiii · 18-10-2020 11:35PM

it's only a boa constricta snake

IAMAMORON · 18-10-2020 11:36PM

I hoovered a Spider on Friday. He hadn't a chance poor Divil.

I am at peace with it now, but I went into myself for a while.

Jaysus Christ. · 18-10-2020 11:37PM

Saved a friend from a cougar in templebar one nite.

NcdJd · 18-10-2020 11:40PM

No let nature take its course. Sparrowhawks and foxes need to eat too.

Degag · 18-10-2020 11:41PM

Very interesting question and an ethical one also. First instinct would be to say yes as once i could be fairly sure there was no danger to myself.

However as you said, it's interfering with the ecosystem. I believe for example (but could be wrong) that the people making the nature documentaries don't/can't/won't interfere and attempt to save an animal they are tracking should it get injured for example.

BrianD3 · 19-10-2020 12:00AM

The manner in which cackling hyenas and wild dogs eat their prey alive and always go for the asshole would probably make me think about intervening - but I'd probably conclude that nature is cruel and its the way things are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsoUYjpjII

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYzFJ5R-hPs

interlocked · 19-10-2020 01:04AM

Absolutely

19-10-2020 01:06AM

Yes.

The roxette principle would apply, and id listen to my heart when caught in that ethical trap.

I saved a pigeon from some ravens once.
Or at least gave it a slight life extension before the wounds and distress would have probably finished it minutes later.
Still, in the moment who wouldnt want to be rescued.

endacl · 19-10-2020 01:08AM

No.

Same reason I wouldn't intervene to save a lettuce from a rabbit.

Quantum Erasure · 19-10-2020 06:09AM

Saving a wild animal, no. Saving sheep from 'pet' dogs, always....

(says me whose only ever shot at clay pigeons)

larchielads · 19-10-2020 06:18AM

What if the snake was eatin a dog? Still predator and prey is it not?

Gruffalux · 19-10-2020 06:33AM

That was a great rescue. Go get something else Boa. Our cats sometimes kill birds. Makes me sad. If I catch them in the first moments I smack them off the bird. They have plenty of food - greedy witches. Hunters come for the deer in the forests around here. I would be too nervous to confront a stranger with a gun. But I do give them dirty looks. Shooting a beautiful deer - big guns and small mickeys I reckon.

Randy Archer · 19-10-2020 07:48AM

Jaysus Christ. wrote: »

Saved a friend from a cougar in templebar one nite.

How do you know that he needed saving ?

Randy Archer · 19-10-2020 07:56AM

Gruffalux wrote: »

That was a great rescue. Go get something else Boa. Our cats sometimes kill birds. Makes me sad. If I catch them in the first moments I smack them off the bird. They have plenty of food - greedy witches. Hunters come for the deer in the forests around here. I would be too nervous to confront a stranger with a gun. But I do give them dirty looks. Shooting a beautiful deer - big guns and small mickeys I reckon.

I’m sure the hunters wouldn’t give a flying fiddlers for your dirty look or your Frankel attempt to confront them .They’d probably mistaken it for a lack of washing

Deer is a source of food . The lads in the Phoenix Park have to bring in snipers to cull their herds of deer occasionally to control the population .

This what happens when little kids take Disney films too literal when they are young 😂

Big mouth small brain is seems

nthclare · 19-10-2020 08:08AM

Saved a frog from a few cruel lads years ago, put it into a nearby big pond.

As I watched the frog swim off out darted around a 10 inch long pike and took the frog and the last I seen of the frog was his back leg hanging out of the pike...

I still think about it, and the frog was going to go one way or the other...

Gruffalux · 19-10-2020 08:59AM

Randy Archer wrote: »

I’m sure the hunters wouldn’t give a flying fiddlers for your dirty look or your Frankel attempt to confront them .They’d probably mistaken it for a lack of washing

Deer is a source of food . The lads in the Phoenix Park have to bring in snipers to cull their herds of deer occasionally to control the population .

This what happens when little kids take Disney films too literal when they are young ðŸ˜‚

Big mouth small brain is seems

You can presume I liked Bambi and I will presume you like shooting arrows from bows while tumescent.

andekwarhola · 19-10-2020 09:50AM

No. It's just nature even if it's hard to take.

gimli2112 · 19-10-2020 09:53AM

I saw a robin in a cat's mouth recently, poor thing looked at me like it was trying to say "Save me"
Fcuk that, cat looked like it knew all the moves.

the purple tin · 19-10-2020 09:55AM

IAMAMORON wrote: »

I hoovered a Spider on Friday. He hadn't a chance poor Divil.

I am at peace with it now, but I went into myself for a while.

They just crawl back out again, unharmed but with a serious thirst for revenge.
Sleep tight :P

19-10-2020 09:55AM

Gruffalux wrote: »

Our cats sometimes kill birds. Makes me sad.

I thought in general the advice was not to let house cats out at all?

Gruffalux wrote: »

I would be too nervous to confront a stranger with a gun. But I do give them dirty looks. Shooting a beautiful deer - big guns and small mickeys I reckon.

Covid ruined a trip for me to go game hunting with a bow that someone had offered to bring me on. I will get to it eventually.

Myself and my daughter (10) have been doing training on rifles recently. Always wanted to learn to shoot and great to be doing it with her. However I have never felt the urge to hunt with guns. Bow hunting I look forward to - but somhow doing it with guns has no appeal at all.

I do hunt and kill wild rabbit for food - but that's with traps not weapons.

Pawwed Rig · 19-10-2020 09:56AM

If the predator and prey are both wild then leave them at it.

I would shoo a cat away from a nest or similar though.
That said if the cat was killing a mouse I would leave them at it so probably hypocritical of me.

El Tarangu · 19-10-2020 10:02AM

85603 wrote: »

I saved a pigeon from some ravens once.
Or at least gave it a slight life extension before the wounds and distress would have probably finished it minutes later.

Tbh, that sounds like you prolonged the suffering of one bird, denied a meal to two other birds (and who knows, that pigeon could have been the difference between life and death for either of them), to serve no end other than assuaging your squeamishness.

El Tarangu · 19-10-2020 10:07AM

Gruffalux wrote: »

Our cats sometimes kill birds. Makes me sad. If I catch them in the first moments I smack them off the bird. They have plenty of food - greedy witches. Hunters come for the deer in the forests around here. I would be too nervous to confront a stranger with a gun. But I do give them dirty looks. Shooting a beautiful deer - big guns and small mickeys I reckon.

What's the difference between those hunters shooting those deer, and you allowing your cats to roam, killing all of the smaller wild creatures?

Pawwed Rig · 19-10-2020 10:08AM

El Tarangu wrote: »

(and who knows, that pigeon could have been the difference between life and death for either of them)

And their chicks

19-10-2020 10:11AM

There was a BBC nature series using live cameras. Summer watch or something it was called? Is it still going?

Anyway one day after they had been following some chicks for awhile a lizard came in and decimated them all. The BBC got complaints from the public saying they should have intervened. The hosts had to explain why they would not do that.

Montage of Feck · 19-10-2020 10:12AM

No, as the animal is probably sick or injured anyway and intervening will only prolong their suffering.

Insect Overlord · 19-10-2020 10:35AM

Some people want to feel like a god, or at the very least a hero. I'd say we shouldn't be imposing our own personal morality tales on mundane acts of nature.

Would you intervene to save a wild animal from a predator?

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