During my brief visit to our Colorado farm, I was surprised not to see either of the two fox that usually den beneath our barn. I assumed that the heavy snow may had either encouraged them to den up for a few days or sent them down to the river where plenty of prey could be found. These assumptions were dashed yesterday morning when I looked out the front window and saw a large patch of blood on the snow. Feathers, numerous paw prints and the mangled carcass of a Canada goose completed the story.
Such a gruesome scene is unlikely to be shown on the popular nature programs. "Civilized humans" prefer to get their violence and gore via action movies; they generally want their nature shows to be sanitized, concentrating on the beauty and grandeur of the natural world. While viewers know that predators must hunt and kill to survive, producers usually "protect their sensitivities" by cutting away from the final events. But the beauty of nature lies in its diversity, its cycles and its interrelationships, violent death included.
