A sika deer with the severed head of a rival male that died in their battle skewered on its antler. Photograph: Kohei Nagira/Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Via The Guardian.
I find my self wondering how the impaled head became severed from the rest of the carcass. Almost certainy not from the battle per se. Did the victor have to drag the carcass around as he grazed until the flesh rotted, or did wolves perhaps scavenge the dead body up top the neck?
Addendum: found the answer in The Atlantic, which also posted the photo: "A local fisherman says the deer dragged the whole body for several days before finally tearing off its head." Maybe he was able to stomp the neck area with his hooves. (p.s. - both links have a bunch of excellent wildlife photos)
For something that look so metal, this deer looks like a little cutie.
ReplyDeleteNothing says "don't mess with me" like wearing your enemy's head as a hat.
ReplyDeleteThe horrors of nature challenge me in my Pantheism--to the extent it's felt as worshipful--as the horrors of nature eroded Darwin's faith: "With respect to the theological view of the question; this is always painful to me.--I am bewildered.--I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see, as plainly as others do, & as I shd wish to do, evidence of design & beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. Not believing this, I see no necessity in the belief that the eye was expressly designed. On the other hand I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe & especially the nature of man, & to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me .... But the more I think the more bewildered I become; as indeed I have probably shown by this letter."
ReplyDeleteRelated: my recent comment on the movie Life of Pi -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2012/10/trailer-for-ang-lees-life-of-pi.html?showComment=1770789434195#c998445982196626305
Thanks for the link.
DeleteI may not be getting the point clearly enough, but I'm not inclined to agree that "most pleasing" is what motivates more than a majority of people. I see a minority, throughout history, motivated by a search for truth--often at great cost.
I envy Believers their more pleasing story. For example what attends the belief in a loving God and eternal life, both familiar from my youth. I guess it could be true that Spinoza found his way to Pantheism in quest of a more pleasing set of beliefs. But I've never thought so. I see him as a heroic searcher for truth, come what may.
But again, I may be missing the point.