Red of Tooth and Claw

Nature is not like it was depicted in the Disney movies of the 1970s. Wild animals are not cute and cuddly. We have a few stories that should remind us of that, but probably won't.

The first story is from Daily Mail Online. Children are left bloodied and scarred by swooping seagulls as 'hundreds' report being attacked in towns and cities across Scotland

The seagulls are moving inland in search of food, and coming into conflict with people, who probably don't know better than to leave them alone, and/or not feed them.

They include horrifying accounts of children left bloodied by the birds swooping on people and household pets and, while coastal communities are severely affected, complaints also include scores of revolting tales of the gulls feasting on rats in Scotland’s biggest city.

The hat tip for that story goes to American Thinker: Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ playing out for real in Scotland. He also reminded me of the phrase that forms the title to this post.

Bats have been described as “rats with wings,” but so are seagulls.

The 2nd story is out of Washington State. From KREM - Otter attacks child, drags them underwater at Bremerton Marina

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), a woman and her young child were walking on a dock around 9:30 a.m. when the river otter pulled the child into the water. The woman said the child was underwater for a few moments before resurfacing.

WDFW officials say the otter kept attacking the woman while she pulled the child out of the water.

I wish I could give a hat tip, but I can't figure out how I tripped over that story.

And there is a list of even more stories in that American Thinker article linked above.

Disney-esque fantasies about the larger predators—e.g., coyotes, bears, lions, boars, wolves, etc. In communities that have started protecting these animals or stop pushing back against them, people are no longer safe:

• Coyote attacks toddler in Woodland Hills in broad daylight: attack captured on video (I know the neighborhood where this happened, and the coyotes are omnipresent and scary).
• Wild Boars Are Causing Havoc In Germany, But Humans Are Making It Worse (I love this COVID-era headline about it being people’s fault)
• Japan wants to make it easier to shoot bears as attacks rise
• Mountain lion attacks, kills pit bull in Sylmar neighborhood

We are having to relearn the same lessons our ancestors always knew: Wild animals and people cannot share the same spaces. It’s a zero-sum game.

As for "Red of Tooth and Claw," it is a quote from "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law—
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed—