WILD animals

Animals live outside, in the wilderness. They are 100% independent. They feed themselves, they protect themselves, and they've been doing it for years.

Humans live indoors, and have long abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. We have, in many ways, isolated ourselves from nature and the environment as a whole. For many of us, the 'outside world' is not only exotic, but a place to fear.

Remember going out into the forest as a kid and playing? No. If you even had the privilege to near a wooded area, you probably didn't go frolicking around in it out of fear that a bear would eat you (or some other type of creature). You're always careful at beaches too, just in case a shark decides to pay a visit.

And if a wild animal came prancing through your front door, you'd probably either chase it out, or, if it was small enough, kill it. We don't like outsiders, especially wild ones, invading our homes. As humans, we protect our territory.

So why is it that when humans go into the homes of animals they are utterly shocked and surprised when they are attacked?

A few days ago, a young boy was killed in British Columbia while camping with his family. He was attacked by a hungry cougar and died.

Yes, this a terrible, awful thing to have happened. No one should come to such a fate while vacationing with their family, and especially not at a young age.

To me, though, an attack on a human by a wild animal, while in such a setting, does not seem obscene. You are entering THEIR home and THEIR territory. Do you really expect to go unnoticed? Because you won't.

A young cougar such as this was doing the only thing it knew how to do: fend for itself in order to stay alive. If it couldn't find any smaller game to eat, I can completely understand why it attacked a human. Again, I cannot stress enough that this attack is extremely unfortunate, but it's also certainly not abnormal.

People need to stop freaking out about animals acting like animals. They aren't going to be civilized snobs like humans are. They don't understand our views on life and behaviour, they only understand their natural instincts. It's time society took a step back and thought about this.