Do you ever wonder what it must be like for a wild animal?

I often think of the life of an animal.
Even the top predators have to hunt for every meal. They might never be hunted themselves but it sure would not be an easy life.
Look at Bears. When the Salmon are running, the bears fail more times than they pull in a fish.

Baby turtle survival rate is pitiful. 999 out of 1000 hatchlings die.
Tasmanian Devils scavenge for carcasses.
Watching Terns dive for their meal, 10% success rate?
Female Black Widow Spiders often eat their mating partner.
The Australia Marsupial Mouse copulates so frenetically that it dies.
Worker ants are born purely to work every day of their lives until death releases them.
Koalas eat nothing but Gum Leaves.
A whole lot of the animal kingdom go through starvation until they can find food.
The Shrew has to eat up to 3 times it's own weight everyday. If they stop moving and eating, they can die within 3 hours.
Humming Birds flap their wings 50 times a second and have to continuously feed to keep up the energy to fly.

Yes, I often think about the incredibly harsh life of animals.

almost evey day

I wonder sometimes, but I don’t think they’re sad about their situations. I like looking up what’s been found on different animals’ behavior and body language meanings. They’re pretty cool (some. Some are surprisingly scary)

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
D.H. Lawrence

i had that life so it's nothing new for me , it's like a challenge to survive in the jungle of modern civil society around so called cultured beasts

It's a norm for them. They probably don't think too much about it, just do what needs to be done. I wonder what stray cats think when they see an indoor cat though.

Me in my 20s

Most smaller animals than us live very short lives, either wild or domesticated. The larger animals live longer than us as a general rule. Yet there are exceptions. Like gorilla's.

Interesting that gorilla's are mostly vegetarian's and still don't live longer than us. They are vastly bigger than us. At least twice our size.

So much for the predator versus prey folks ideas. It's size that matters mostly.

Domesticated animals live approximately 10% longer. So it's not much of a difference.

I'll take the slightly longer easier life over the shorter and harder wild life.

Wild animals are the true natural order of the planet. They are designed to survive and thrive in their environment. The balance of this has been screwed up by humans who happen to be the most insignificant creature in this planet. In truth, they are the first world and we are the problem.

I have spent many hours over the years closely observing wild animals, and I often wish I could get into their heads and know what they are thinking and feeling.

Yes however i don't tend to focus on the things you mentioned.

But cognition is different in humans. Animals aren't "thinking" about the things we think about it. Their world is instinct. No fear. No judging. No goals outside of survival and procreation. What I'd like to see is more people understand that they're animals too. It slows the world down and makes it much more navigable. And real.

Some commuters behave like wild animals!

I watch deer in the back yard almost every day. They are constantly on the alert from predators. They forage thru three feet of snow to find some morsel of food left from the fall. They will likely die an awful painful death.
Yet they survive to live another day.

I would never make it as a deer. 🦌

You do know, many animals have a system for surviving.

Some make a permit shelter, some live in caves, and some roam.

They would do better if humans weren't around.

Yeah, I remind my parakeets when they start fussing.

I'd rather be wild