Kids at Zoo Get Firsthand Look at Nature as Mother Duck and Ducklings Land in Enclosure - Screams Begin as Hungry Bear Appears
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
In moving from an agrarian to an industrial society, many Americans have lost touch with the harsh realities of the natural world.
Sure, many people have pets and visit zoos, but for the most part, ordinary Americans’ understanding of nature has mostly been filtered through cute cartoons and selective footage in movies or nature documentaries.
But at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, a group of children got to witness firsthand how brutal and, indeed, un-cute nature could be.
As seen in a TikTok video captured on April 25 by a mother hosting a birthday party for her daughter, the girl and their guests were watching a female grizzly bear named Juniper swimming around the enclosure.
A mother duck and its ducklings swam across the bear’s path, and the bear saw an opportunity.
Unperturbed by the presence of an underage audience, Juniper vaulted herself toward the ducklings, grabbing one of them and biting off its head.
The children tried banging on the glass to distract the bear, and they screamed and whimpered as Juniper tucked into her feast.
The bear, however, was unbothered.
The mother could be heard to say, “OK, we can’t watch this,” to her child. She then said to the bear, “Hey buddy, can you leave them alone? Can we not?”
Though she described the scene as a “natgeo trainwreck” in her TikTok post, the mother said her children were “not traumatized” by the incident because “we see wildlife doing their thing all over where we live.”
While the mother’s account has been made private, the video was widely shared on social media:
Bear was eating those baby ducks like they were popcorn chicken! Kids def scared for life pic.twitter.com/bN0nlVpjGI
— X-Tok (@X_tik_tok) April 26, 2024
The New York Post noted in their story on the incident that even though the ducklings might have seemed like a minuscule snack for the large brown bear, the animals are omnivorous and will eat almost anything they can get their hands on.
The Woodland Park Zoo sent an email to KUOW-FM in Seattle seeking to demystify Juniper’s behavior.
“While our animal care team doesn’t officially document these natural occurrences, this is the season of waterfowl and bird hatchings and, therefore, a vulnerable time of year for ducklings, goslings and other chicks,” it said.
“Woodland Park Zoo is truly an urban oasis and naturally draws native wildlife to our grounds,” the zoo said. “Over the years, our animal care team has tried to discourage waterfowl and other birds from nesting in or near our habitats throughout the zoo, particularly where our carnivores live. However, free-flying ducks and birds can choose where to nest.
“While we know it can be difficult to watch, bears and other carnivores predating on chicks is a natural instinct and is indeed the circle of life.”
Indeed.
As violent as the sight of cute ducklings getting mercilessly gobbled up was, it was but a small glimpse of what regularly happens in nature.
It has always consisted of more than just cute baby animals.
Nature is a tough creation, nature is resilient and nature is more than capable of taking care of and feeding itself.
Mice and rabbits, for instance, reproduce exponentially since they have hardly any natural defenses.
Likewise, predators such as bears not only feed themselves by attacking defenseless ducklings but also help naturally regulate the animal populations in the wild.
It might not have been pretty, but it was the way nature was designed to self-regulate by our all-knowing Creator.
And that was something these children saw firsthand from behind the glass at the zoo.
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