The documentary is in German, but I don’t know where this was filmed.
Tiger sharks and blue whales are both wide ranging species.
This is not a big blue whale. It’s only about 60 feet long!
Nature isn’t always so nice.
This would be like a human being eaten alive by pack of weasels.
Not a great way to go.
Nature is almost never “nice”. It is a human thing to insist on kindness in handling animals under our dominion, and that is an admirable thing. But when it is taken to extremes (we must “never” cause any distress in our domestic animals; merely having domestic animals is “cruel” or exploitation) we forget that humans themselves are part of nature and that all life depends on the death or destruction of something else ( even photosynthesis would not exist if the sun weren’t providing energy to be exploited). We tend to portray lions and other preditors as “evil” -hence films like “Bambi”, “lion king” (really, lions making friends with baboons?) etc. The more we are removed from real nature, the more we tend to mythologize it.
Peggy, this is in reply to your comment. There is a huge difference between animals in the wild and domestic animals in this context. They are “domestic” by definition because of humans relationship to their care and “ownership”. Why you even brought up domestic animals in reference to a whale being eaten alive in it’s own natural habitat by it’s own natural predators makes absolutely no sense. The two are completely different topics and situations. No, nature is never nice. Nature is primal, “nature” as it is being referred to in this example is animals in their native environment doing what they do naturally to survive in THEIR dominion. Furthermore,humans in this day and age do not live primally. We have the intelligence, the resources, and the ability to determine right from wrong, so in OUR dominion, we need not rip living creatures to shreds because IT IS NOT NECESSARY. We have the intelligence and reasoning to know that such brutality is avoidable, and we have developed methods and means for efficient and effective slaughter and treatment. However it is not always used, because people like you (who do not make up the population of humans mentioned in the previous sentence) deem it unnecessary.
And NEVER causing harm to our domestic animals is not going to extremes. They are not toys, they are living, feeling creatures like we are and there is no reason to knowingly cause harm or suffering to them. If we choose to take the responsibility of having a domestic animal, then we must also accept the responsibility of caring for them appropriately. WHY is it so hard for you people to properly care for and be responsible for anything other than yourselves? The fact that you use this video documenting natural selection in the wild as a basis for excusing neglect and abuse of domestic animals speaks volumes of both your IQ and your character.
And FYI, of animals that have been studied in the wild, a large amount of species with the highest intelligence and cognitive abilities do actually use impressively humane methods of killing their prey. Many orca, for example, either kill very quickly or use methods of stunning or drowning before consuming their prey. Specific pods that feed of great whites discovered that sharks tipped on their back go into a trance like state, and as a result developed a unique method to utilize this when hunting them as a result. They go to great and often elaborate lengths to devise these methods to humanely kill their prey before consuming it.
If an orca puts that much thought into stewardship of THEIR PREY, and you consider treating the animals you own humanely as EXTREME…. who is smarter? You or the orca?
I think you may be giving both humans and Orca a little too much credit.
Slaughtering and killing methods are surely driven more by efficiency than by deep thinking on humane and proper stewardship of the victims. When these desires coincide, it is indeed a happy day. But when they do not, or at least do not obviously, I don’t believe many predators, ourselves included, succeed in choosing the latter.
Don’t be fooled domestic animals are outside the domain of nature. They are not. A ghetto, or even an upscale suburbia, is still nature; albeit a very different environment from the forests. Feral cats, coyotes, squirrels, raccoons, opposums, kites all have adapted to their environment. Domestic dogs have adapted to living alongside us in the same environment.
Human’s greatest downfall is assuming we can control the direction of our own future. Climate changes, persisting weeds competing with crops and the wars on microbes are a constant reminder we are not all that far removed. However we are deluded thinking we can improve ourselves; when in actuality we can only change our environment, and the side effects are thrown in.
Speaking of which, a coyote challenged my dog today.
The coyote said, “What’s wrong with your legs? Why don’t you stand tall and fight?”