I was in bed trying to fall asleep when I thought of Ice Bear. Ice Bear is a Polar Bear that National Geographic/Animal Planet followed to document his life. He is a teenager Polar Bear. I remember the one episode I watched. Ice Bear and other Polar Bears were stranded on land and it was Summer. They were waiting for Winter to come so they could migrate back home to procreate. Ice Bear was all alone. He had no family and he had no food. Food was scarce and he resorted to cannibalism. He became a scavenger, eating carcasses of other Polar Bears which died of starvation. A mighty Polar Bear, the best predator of the land of ice had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Then, he saw a mother Polar Bear and her 2 cubs. He followed them as she went in search of food to ensure the survival of her babies. Ice Bear followed them with a distance and could not get near them. He was lonely and was happy just being around them, but mother Polar Bear did not feel the same way. Eventually, she chased him away and he wandered around on his own. One day, he found a pack of dogs. Ice Bear did something which surprised the cameramen. He laid on the ground in the middle of the pack. Bears and dogs are genetically enemies. Ice Bear craved company so much that he defied his instincts to kill them and just laid on the ground to sleep. The next morning, Ice Bear was covered in snow when he woke up. He left the pack and continue to make his journey towards the destination where his instincts told him to. Then, he saw ice everywhere. Water had frozen to create ground for the bears to walk.
Then I teared. For their winter was a few months late, and it was going to be shorter than ever. The bears had limited time to create a new generation. The cubs would have to grow up and learn their survival skills at a younger age. The bears would have to change their pace and quickly get to the promised land of food before the season changes and their prey leaves. What have we done?
At times, I want to be an animal. Animals have instincts. They always know where to go, and what to do. They feel so strongly that they press on even when they know there is danger. Wildebeests make great migrations across the Savannah each year. They are the first animals to lead the migration. They know where to go where there is fresh grass to graze, where to go where there is rain and where to go where it is suitable to mate. I remember a scene where millions of Wildebeests stand before a river. They have to cross the river in order to reach the other side where their oasis awaits, and the river is home to the hungry crocodiles. Driven by their instincts, the herd races across the river. All of them hope to not be the unlucky few which would end up as torn flesh. The herd eventually makes it across with a few sacrifices.
I am sure that I am not the only one to have ever have this thought. Humans are the only species of all the creatures on this planet to try to go against Mother Nature. We have science and medicine to prolong our lives. We take land and water from the animals and proclaim it as ours for survival. Here comes the joke. When there is global warming and natural disasters are more frequent, we try hard to think of 'solutions'. This 'solution' is not to stop all that from happening, but rather to slow it down. What hypocrites humans are.
Then I think further and I blamed Adam and Eve. If they hadn't listened to the serpent and ate the apple, we wouldn't have knowledge. Without knowledge, we wouldn't have all these disasters that the world is experiencing right now. Perhaps this is God's punishment for us. This is a very fine example of 'you reap what you sow'. Adam and Eve went against God's instructions to never eat the apple, and yet they did. Humans go against their conscience to overfish, cut down trees, destroy the planet and we are suffering.
I just want to be an animal. I want to have my own instincts. To live, to eat, to survive, to die.