A lesson from the animal kingdom

Kaine Agary

When I was growing up, my grandmother received the gift of a
chicken from an old friend. The chicken laid eggs which hatched
into about seven or eight chicks (I do not remember exactly how
many). It was a very exciting time and we all wondered if all the
chicks would survive into adulthood.

For some reason, my family is very reluctant to eat animals that
have been gifted to them. There is a story of a Mr George who
gifted my grandfather a chicken (named Mr George) when my mum and
her siblings were growing up. They fed this chicken, took care of
it and it became nice and plumb. My grandfather refused to kill the
chicken for a family feast. This was Mr George, after all. Then one
night, my aunt said they heard the chicken in distress but they
could not go out to check on it. The following day, they went
outside to find out that Mr George had made a very delicious meal
for a snake the previous night.

There is another animal story, which I witnessed. My late aunt
received the gift of a rabbit from a friend of her late husband’s.
While we were all looking forward to some special rabbit dish (if
anyone would know what to do with a rabbit, it was this aunt). My
aunt refused to kill it. She said that she could not bring herself
to do so. Granted, it was a beautiful looking rabbit with white fur
on the body and pink fur on the inside ears. You could call it a
show rabbit. So, my aunt got someone to build a cage and paid for
grass every day to feed the rabbit. This went on for a few weeks
and we marvelled at how well the rabbit was doing. Then one morning
we went down to find the cage had been broken into and the rabbit
was gone. Another gifted animal gone to those who wanted them more
than we did.

Back to my grandmother’s mother hen. There were seven or eight
chicks, as I said, and they freely roamed the compound and the
backyard where we had trees, spices and herbs and unfortunately, a
shallow gutter that divided the backyard in two. This would prove
to be tragic for one of the chicks. The mother hen took her chicks
to the backyard as usual, but when she eventually emerged we found
her with one less chick. Eventually, I found the missing young
chick in the gutter, unable struggling to make it out. It seems the
mother had tried but had abandoned the chick after a while. I
rescued the chick who was at death’s door and re-introduced it to
the mother hen. The mother hen almost pecked the chick to death.
The chick was laying there, struggling for its like and I thought
that if I could revive it, the mother hen would accept it back into
her fold. My grandmother suggested that I cover the chick with a
bucket and use sticks to beat on the bucket for a while
(apparently, this trick used to work for them as children). I did.
It was not a full revival; the chick was suffering the effects of
being almost drowned. But every time I tried to reintroduce the
chick to it mother, she would almost peck it to death until my
grandmother asked me to leave the mother hen alone. If the other
chicks could cross that gutter and make it to the other side, then
this chick was weak and would be a liability. I eventually put the
chick somewhere I thought safe and took care of it till it died.
Until it eventually died, within a day or so, the mother hen went
on about her business with the other chicks without a care for or
glance at the dying chick.

I have seen an episode of National Geographic where a lion cub
was injured by its father and eventually killed by the father. This
was a cub still under the protection of its mother. Why? The lion
was jealous of the attention that the cub was getting from its
mother. He attacked the cub until he eventually killed it. That is
not the normal way of things with Lions but this Lion was
sufficiently aggrieved.

Most animals, including humans, have to search for food and
sometimes that means vicious fights between relations and rivals.
When a lion attacks a water buffalo and is overpowered by the
buffalo, it retreats to find another prey or rally a supporting
team to take the buffalo down and they share the spoils. The
strongest lion gets the lion share, the others take what is left
and the vultures and hyenas wait for what is left on the bone.

In the animal kingdom as well as the human kingdom, it is all
about survival of the fittest. Sometimes you must retreat to return
stronger. When the task is great, it is advisable to seek
help/partners. When a member of the group is not bringing any value
to the group, that member will be dispensed with very quickly
(family or not). Make sure that you are not entering into a
partnership for friendship or family alone. You must be bringing
something of value to the table to avoid being expendable. There is
a hierarchy in every organisation. Take your time to understand its
dynamics. In Port Harcourt they say that when a fowl is introduced
to a new environment it does not immediately stand on its two legs.
It tests the ground with one leg until it has the confidence to
bring down the other leg.

Luckily for us in the human kingdom, we have legal instruments
to prevent of from losing out completely. In the animal kingdom,
there is no drafting of agreements, no courts and no arbitration
panels. The animal is either killed or must retreat to
re-strategise.