June 14, 2009: Raw Nature (graphic)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hoof Hearted asked me to post these pictures of nature in the raw.

Unlike the visions of Walt Disney and PETA, nature is not a Bambi movie with humans being the only threat to peace and tranquility.
It's a rough and tumble fight for survival, most every day, for real critters.

Glacier National Park, like most Rocky Mountain parks, don't have the resources or impetus to keep all the roads open in winter.
They are closed to vehicle traffic but people can traverse them on foot, weather permitting.

Two guys were walking one of these roads when they came upon what looked like road kill. But it couldn't be road kill with no traffic.



Closer inspection revealed a Lion and a Ram, dead in the road.
The Lion still had a mouthful of Ram fur, and the Ram had one of those powerful horns broken off.



It became obvious the two had been locked in a death struggle, when they toppled off the cliff, killing them both.
From the looks of the ram's horns, he hit the rocks a couple times on the way down, likely the Lion did too.



This type of struggle plays out, on various scales, millions of times every day.
I Thank God for supermarkets.

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