Natural Selection
The last few weeks we’ve had a fairly disruptive influence here at PTC’s “Site-B” bunker. A birds’ nest is nestled in a low bush under one of our windows. It had four eggs in it which became four baby chicks.
Because, Frederico the Wonder Tiger is prone to chasing birds, and his new playmate, Ares, is happy to join in, we had to put up fortifications around the nest. As you may recall, Frederico can fly, and Ares, as it turns out, is quite a digger. The fortifications were cumbersome, and needed daily reinforcement.
Systematically, the baby birds have succumbed to natural selection. We’re pretty sure that there were some nest invaders in the lot, because there were two different kinds of birds. The pretty one died first, jumping or being pushed out of the nest several times. The second died in the nest two days later, succumbing to parasites I suspect, because it was crawling with mites. The third died the next morning, laying inverted on the ground, inside the protective barricade.
The last seemed large enough that in another day or two it probably could have flown out of the compound. Instead it jumped to the ground, and calmly sat inside the energized one way laser fence. That is until the animals were let out into the exercise field. Seeing the Wonder Tiger, the bird seized its chance, and ran headlong out of the protection of the enclosure, and straight into Frederico’s open mouth.