👀 Into the wild, as it's meant to be

#382 | We forget that the great outdoors isn't necessarily... cute

The internet has been around for a very long time, and for almost that long, we've been using it to watch cute animal videos. And these go beyond just your basic cat zoomies and adorable dog videos - I personally enjoy watching videos of polite snakes, and I'll definitely go goo-goo-eyed at a video of a tiger stretching or rolling around. I just want to pet them all... because, as the meme track says, if not friend... then why friend-shaped?

But obviously, wild animals are NOT (mostly) my friends, and I should not be trying to pet a snake or a bear. I follow the @natureismetal Instagram account to remind me of exactly this. The account bio says, "Life eats life", and that's exactly what it showcases - a curation of pictures and videos showcasing wild animals in their element. Do you want a reminder that a lioness out of captivity can take down a full-grown zebra in just a few minutes? Or that even some deer or goats, whom you'd normally never associate with violence, routinely gore each other to death during mating season? The photos and videos on this page serve to remind us that despite all our anthropomorphising, animals are powerful, often ruthless, and beautiful.  It's definitely not an account to follow for the weak of stomach, I'd say. Me? I love it. Outside of our human world, it is indeed survival of the fittest, and food doesn't come nicely packaged in a grocery store aisle.

You don't even have to look too far from home for the reminder - the account often showcases species we can find right in our backyards, such as this hawk on the hunt for lunch or pretty much anything seagulls do. Thankfully, while most of the content on the page is pretty gory and metal, there are a few outliers - such as this lovely symbiotic relationship:

After all, who would I be if I didn't leave you with a little bit of hope, right? 
Stay \m/,

Pai