National Wildlife Day, which is today, is a day to celebrate wildlife. Which gives me the perfect excuse for writing about some animals I’ve had on my mind recently.
Ones Close to Home
At the beginning of the summer I went to Art Pancake’s Tusculum Feed Center. No, it’s not a pancake house. It sells animal and pet food of all kinds, and also rents out various equipment as well as fills propane tanks. That’s why I went. Our tank was empty but we were fixing to grill soon.
As I waited in line, the people in front of me kept adding 20 and 50 pound bags to their order. Everything from peanuts, corn, bird feed, and even a salt lick, which the clerk ended up talking them out of.
“Come back late fall. The deer will really appreciate it then.”
“Oh?” the couple wondered allowed.
“Gonna be a hard season on them this winter. Late spring freeze killed the acorns. Be nice if you could come back and refill your supply of corn and nuts then too. The critters will be appreciating your hospitality about that time.”
Well, not only did we have a late spring freeze, we’ve had one heck of a bad summer. Extremely hot and dry, resulting in a severe drought. I’ve seen some deer venture into our neighborhood looking for water and such, and the birds have been making frequent visits during the day to our birdbath out back. I’ve been making sure to keep it filled with fresh water for them. (The birds at least. The deer never come on our property. I wish they did because I’d make sure to feed them all the corn and nuts they might want!)
Ones in a Land Far, Far Away
Not too long ago I wrote about the baby gorilla born in the Virunga National Park. Today there was a disturbing article on the BBC News website. It seems Congo rebels are now in control of large portions of the park.
The mountain gorillas that call the park home, and which is supposed to be a sanctuary for them, are in danger of becoming casualties in the fighting between Hutus and Tutsis. I don’t understand it all, but I get the gist: it’s a territorial dispute. One wants to be in control of the other, and the other wants the one to back off. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have had to flee for their lives and it doesn’t look like life will return to normal for them anytime soon.
Yet, what of the mountain gorillas? There are only 700 of them in the world, and half of them live in the middle of these warring factions. Nine gorillas have already died this year, thanks to rebel fighters who mercilessly –-and needlessly—- slaughtered them.
There’s so much unrest everywhere, but this one bothers me the most. Those who would protect the gorillas have now been rendered helpless and are caught in a life and death struggle of their own. To keep the gorillas alive, they must first keep themselves alive. Hard to do when you’re trying to deal with people who place no value on life at all –be it human or otherwise. They’re on a mission to wipe each other out, and in the process they might wipe out a whole species of ape. A tragedy all the way around, for both humans and animals.