Unleash the animal in you!!!

With not more than 2 months of C++ coding, I've learnt what's 'Unpredictable behaviour', 'Undefined behaviour', 'Unspecified behaviour'.. A code snippet can produce such behaviours! It could burn your hard disk, crash your system, may give proper results or do nothing at all, or may even send an email you always 'wished' to send to your manager species (!!!) Basically, anything can happen! (A fond memory recalled from what was taught to me by a genius mentor! That's how he used to say what an undefined behaviour of a code is!)
I'd wonder, then why is it called 'undefined', why not 'unpredictable' ? Oooo this English vocabulary!

And if a non-living thing can have varied behaviours, living things can well far have numerous behaviours - usual.. unusual... unpredictable... unexpected!
Ofcourse! undefined, unspecified, unpredictable, unexpected - all these sound to mean pretty much the same to a common man! It means it is 'unusual'.
An uncommon man could go on with his "un" prefixed behaviours!!
Lets be common and look at and look upto nature for behaviours! Coz, however hard a man tries to get uncommon, nature has its say and it's final, alright!
Animals are no exception to usual and unusual behaviours!


I would want to start my Animal behaviour series with perhaps the most strange and heart touching behaviour, brilliantly documented by Saba Douglas Hamilton.




I must have watched this documentary well over a dozen times!

I've never wanted to trade places, even with the greatest of celebrities. I want to be me and remain ME!!
But deep down I secretly wish I could trade places with these documentary makers just and only till the time the documentary is done!!

Here's presenting you with one of the best animal documentaries!! Happy Journey!
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The lioness is called "Kamunyak" which literally means 'the blessed one'! Read on.. You will find out why is the blessed one!

Under the cover of darkness, the activity of lions is at its peak. The time is best for hunting and dining! It is a gruesome game of cat and mouse (idiomatically cat and mouse..)
Lions are the killing machines. Pride makes them formidable competitors.
It is natural for the lions to kill every 4 days. And natural for the oryx or antelopes in common to get killed - the law of nature - the weakest is to be killed/eliminated, and the fittest has to survive. Good old theory of 'Survival of the fittest'. This theory holds good with same, similar and dissimilar species!

But Kamunyak has defied this rule! She has contradicted everything we know about lions! Why?

Because Kamunyak has adopted an Oryx calf not more than a few weeks old!!! The calf hasn't fled in terror at the lioness' sight, which is also quite unusual, since the Oryx calves usually are up their feet to fled away when encountered with danger, and that too within minutes after their birth.

This calf was too weak to keep up with the Oryx herd.
Where ever the calf went, Kamunyak followed. But was it the killer instinct that made Kamunyak follow the calf..? Not really!
The same powerful jaws can also be tender, Kamunyak was mothering the Oryx calf! This was one side of her, but there was another side.. Was she confused? She licked the calf, bit the calf by the tail.. Sometimes mother, sometimes predator???
Wasn't her hunting reflex triggered? Oryx are prime prey, Kamunyak was hunting for something.. but what? Truth was..she wasn't hunting at all!

The calf was starving, hunger kept it moving away for milk. But Kamunyak wouldn't leave the calf to go out of her sight. She'd 'call' the calf, the typical sound made to contact the baby.

She clearly defied the laws of nature! The two stayed intimate..

Had the mothering instinct won over hunger?? For 2 weeks, both had starved!

What was happening? What is the reason behind the extreme behaviour?
The impact of 'man' killing animals, loss of habitat has had devastating effects on animals. Dr.Laurence Frank in his observation has brought out that the Lion population is down by 90% over the last two decades!

Was it trauma? Can this extreme behaviour of Kamunyak be a result of trauma-striken animal, who'd lost her pride at a critically early age?

Kamunyak was solitary! Her pride weren't seen anywhere near by her, even though there were 3 resident Lion pride. Lioness raise youngs in a nursery.. all female gang, alright! ;-) sisters, daughters, grandmothers, mothers!! They form a pride, bond hence forms!
Being solitary would put the lioness at any lion's mercy!

Kamunyak was surrounded by hostile lions, and the stress had begun to show. Both the calf and the lioness had been starving. Her obsession was killing both!

The news spread far across, attracted tourists from long distances to witness the Legend in the making!

14 days with each other and 14 days without food! Every bystander wanted to help, and more to the helping, a chunk of meat was thrown, so to keep the lioness alive!
Despite the terrible hunger, Kamunyak wouldn't take it.

With over two weeks, the duo heads for a drink in the river. It's mid-day and all the Sambaru reserve animals inclusive of predators would gather at the river.
In Saba's own words - "With the lioness as the protector, the calf has little to fear"!!

For the first time they'd come to the river for water! But they both needed more for survival!
The attachment was amazing!! If Kamunyak were with her pride, this couldn't have happened, so say the experts!


Kamunyak had broken the rules of nature! Will nature strike back???

15 days!!! They'd grown weak!

For the first time, Kamunyak had left the calf wander out of her sight.....

Did nature have its say?????


Yess! A male had got the calf by its neck!!!! Kamunyak was desparate and confused and didn't stand a chance! :-(



The dominant lion had killed the calf, Kamunyak came by with scared steps, smelling the blood, searching and reacting exactly like a mother who'd lost her baby!!!

That was it!!!!

The fairy tale had an end dictated by Nature!

Kamunyak hunted and ate the next day, her starvation ending after 15 long days!

And ever since, it is said, she has adopted 5 Oryx calves- With each having its own end!


Kamunyak has turned nature on its head!
This is THE HEART OF A LIONESS - This is Kamunyak - The Blessed one!
And this is Animal Behaviour - Episode 1
:-)

P.S:
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/lioness/videogallery/videogallery.html
This link takes you into more videos of 'The Heart of a Lioness'!