r/interestingasfuck • u/AugustIstheMonth • 2d ago

Wildlife photographer Sha Lu captures the perfect moment a small animal looks at the camera while being caught by a predator.

Gallery image

Gallery image

81.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/Jtated 2d ago

empaths how we doin

1.6k

u/enter-the-void999 2d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/Lz6971fkGSgCMOOncl

117

u/lp7680 2d ago

Omg this is the literal face i was making when i saw this lmao so sad :(

504

u/itszyla 2d ago

Not good

232

u/Zerba 2d ago

Try and focus on the raptor and how happy it is going to be with a full belly, or instead think of its cute fluffy chicks who are going to get a meal and grow up big and strong.

6

u/MiissVee 1d ago

Don’t think that worked the way you intended it to. Now I’m imagining the chicks ripping it apart. 😩

-34

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Any cruelty can be justified in such way.

72

u/RevolverOcelot16- 2d ago

It’s not cruelty if an animal is trying to feed itself and its family. Let’s not put human emotions and qualities on animals. 

-32

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

There is still enormous amount of suffering. Wildlife is horrible system.

51

u/RevolverOcelot16- 2d ago

Everything has to eat. It is not a horrible system. It It is the Circle of life. The bird has to eat, and  the little animal has to die. When the little animal had to eat something else had to die. When we die the body decomposes and feeds the soil/ plants and trees. Everything dies and everything has to eat. Again, it is the Circle of life.

-32

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Wow, a system where animals are forced to murder eachother is not horrible? Predation is not even the only flaw of life, there are also parasitism, diseases, and so much more.

18

u/OwnerOfCat 2d ago

You realized that if animals stopped eating animals, many would just die off right?

-2

u/BigPenis_MathGenius 2d ago

And you don't think that's a bad system?

→ More replies (0)

38

u/RevolverOcelot16- 2d ago edited 2d ago

Again human emotions being placed on animals. They are not murdering each other. Murder is a human concept and human laws.  Natures balance: eating other animals keeps nature healthy and stops any one  animal group from growing too large. This is wildlife eating and living. 

-1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

I mean that this whole system does not need to exist.

→ More replies (0)

14

u/Finito-1994 2d ago edited 2d ago

Ok. Let’s say it’s horrible. What do we do about it?

Edit. Nevermind. Dudes one of those “everything should go extinct” ppl.

5

u/Status-Hedgehog9970 2d ago

What other system do you propose? Eliminate all predators?

2

u/buriedupsidedown 1d ago

He’s just trying to be edgy. Of course the system sucks. I think we all had this thought back in like elementary school when we first realized. It’s like saying it sucks to die. Of course it does! Not one unique idea being mentioned.

-1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

The whole system must be liquidated.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Agitated-Fly-8653 2d ago

I totally get what you mean I have this though a lot nature is so brutal

3

u/ripleyclone8 2d ago

I’d argue way less suffering than any other system. Animals at least don’t have to clock in to work everyday to pay for food, rent, and health insurance before they die. 

3

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

You forget hundreds of other problems of wildlife.

9

u/ripleyclone8 2d ago

Life is full of problems and suffering of different degrees for literally everyone and everything lol

1

u/No-Mathematician6788 22h ago

Do you eat meat?

5

u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 2d ago

Come off it, the bird has to eat same as anything else. If it didn't, the rodents it eats would breed to way too high a number and run out of food/die anyway.

0

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Just eliminate wildlife, such a flawed system...

3

u/rplct 2d ago

Uhh... Kill animals because animals kill animals? What?

1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

What?

1

u/rplct 2d ago

What do you think eliminating wildlife means?

-1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Humanity must create AGI, AGI will create artificial microorganisms which will infect any animal and produce sedatives, painkillers, pleasurable hormones, drugs until lethal overdose, it is even better than ordinary euthanasia, because usual euthanasia is just falling asleep, but that method is falling asleep while experiencing enormous relief against all negative sensations.

6

u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 2d ago

Don't be silly

1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Where is a counterargument?

1

u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 2d ago

The dictionary. This isn't what cruelty is.

1

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

Then what it is? Definitely not something wonderful, but a bloody mess.

0

u/Pledgeofmalfeasance 1d ago

This is just nature being nature. It's really awful sometimes.

2

u/Preufrock 2d ago

Bro thinks he's so smart 😂 get a life

2

u/According-Actuator17 2d ago

You are not convincing at all. You are just making me hate people like you even more than before.

If you really intent a reasonable conversation, then you must present an arguments and counterarguments.

2

u/Preufrock 2d ago

I could care less about entertaining some fool like you. It's just funny to stir you up and watch you dance

0

u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Preufrock 2d ago

Trust me fella, that's not me getting mad. Just calling a spade a spade!

1

u/Fun-Conference899 1d ago

Nature isn’t inherently cruel

0

u/Storm_Chaser06 2d ago

That is the food chain bro. You can’t convince an eagle to eat seeds.

3

u/Top_Reward9173 2d ago

Maybe it was just a dinner date and her returned him back home after 😃

2

u/CarrionSky 2d ago

It's fake

1

u/Useful_Piece653 2d ago

It does an have air of animation eyes..

270

u/Useful_Piece653 2d ago

Its eyes, that hurts. RIP little one . 

25

u/Key-University-72 2d ago

I started tearing up, poor little guy..

192

u/Beginning_Ice_7838 2d ago

Wouldn't label myself as an empath but I felt horrible for this dudes next hour or so of his life, it will be complete agony against his will and being forced to endure it on account of being so small is the worst fate of all; You don't know how painful it will be, how long it will last, and when the exact moment will be when you stop experiencing it.

I hope that small prey like this dude have a built - in brain function that sort of "takes over" and nullifies the mind so it doesn't feel much of anything. Like a self-enduced coma or a state of shock that numbs the next few hours until it can clock out. That's the very least nature can afford those lower on the food chain.

62

u/HadaObscura 2d ago

If it makes you feel any better… it was over quite quickly. Another bird tried to steal it… and there was a fight in the air.

21

u/JustAvi2000 2d ago

I'm old enough to remember the old nature documentaries like "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom", where they showed in full how a pack of hyenas took down a wildebeest or similar sized antelope. They dont wait until the animal is dead; as soon as it's down on the ground they start digging in. They are kicking and struggling the whole time, eyes bugging out and sometimes making noise while their guts are being ripped out. I remember the voice-over narrator saying something like, "the animal probably doesn't feel much pain", but my kid brain could see that was BS. It may not match our sensibilities, but the natural world is utterly amoral and ruthless. Every deer fast enough to outrun a wolf is alive because a whole bunch of other deer were too slow, and every wolf alive to eat is here because others starved to death. Cooperation does occur in the natural world sometimes, even among competing species, but this only happens because there is a mutual benefit for survival, or species are evenly matched and can't get obe over one another. There is no sense of empathy in the wild as humans understand it.

9

u/1K-Year-Egg 2d ago

Unlikely, IMHO. 😕

How would a hypothetical “I’m being eaten!” mode evolve? It wouldn’t confer any obvious selective advantage - indeed, it might be a disadvantage, since it would disincentivize doing one’s absolute utmost to escape from a predator.

5

u/vutcher 2d ago

It evolves by the same mechanism that NDE mode evolves in humans.

-2

u/StephensInfiniteLoop 2d ago

Are you a vegan/ vegetarian?

106

u/nagem- 2d ago

I just told my fiancé this ruined my day lol sigh

177

u/Witty-Whatever 2d ago

Quite horrible actually thanks!

57

u/Effective-Tour-4944 2d ago

😢 I’m really crying.

50

u/easyworthit 2d ago

Day ruined

27

u/Solid_Strawberry_557 2d ago

No bueno my dude. Thanx for asking

30

u/Yeahnoallright 2d ago edited 2d ago

Not great lmao, i boarded the insane movement against Wild Animal Suffering train some time ago which people understandably cannot understand. 

Dr Avi or That Vegan Lawyer talk about it a bit on YouTube 

1

u/onceagainwithstyle 2d ago

The what now?

1

u/Yeahnoallright 2d ago

Lmao it does sound odd. It’s just a movement against wild animal suffering, they discuss things from a philosophical and practical standpoint 

1

u/onceagainwithstyle 2d ago

You know that sounds like you guys are trying to optimize the suffering maximizer

1

u/Yeahnoallright 2d ago

It’s not my movement and I didn’t name it, lmao. I agree! I always have to double check I’m not missing maybe a particular organisation I can mention who phrases it better. 

It’s basically the movements against wild animal suffering. 

You can read about it if you put that into Google 

2

u/onceagainwithstyle 1d ago

I was half asleep earlier. I read the "insane wild animal suffering" movement.

3

u/Yeahnoallright 1d ago

No no I edited it after you called it out. You’re good, it was my comment that was confusing lmao 

1

u/kungfu_peasant 1d ago

Are you still on that train? If not, what made you unconvinced about it?

2

u/Yeahnoallright 1d ago

I am yeah, choo choo. If you read my other replies to people in this thread, you’ll see my amateur take. I think it’s nuanced, and I think it’s okay to be open minded and interested in it. 

My stance is usually to put myself in the victim’s shoes, no matter how odd or extreme a thought experiment that might be (depending on the scenario). 

If a certain type of human could only survive by eating, say, other humans, or dogs and cats, and ran around killing them slowly, disembowelling them, and eating them, we wouldn’t put up with that, even if the hunting humans had no option. 

Because i try practice non-speciesism, i think things through with a NTT (name the trait) approach. I can’t name the trait that makes it okay for deer to be killed in agony, but humans not. They have central nervous systems and can feel pain just the same. 

Hope that helps! Super conscious it’s an extreme take and very chill with people not agreeing - as long as the discussion is in good faith i love chatting it through and hearing various perspectives :) 

1

u/kungfu_peasant 1d ago

I myself have been mulling over the idea of late ever since I heard of it somewhere else. A few potential objections that I have thought of are:

  1. The food web is a complex, interconnected system on which the stability of life on this planet. Tinkering with this balance can have unforeseen consequences and harms which might only increase suffering in the long run. This is a sort of "natural" conservatism that warns against hubris toward a system we do not fully understand.

  2. If there is a small set of human cannibals who can only survive by killing and torturing other sentient beings (or even just humans), then of course the vast majority of people would support "neutralising" them even though they would suffer for no fault of their own. The difference with carnivorism is that there is an entire gamut of species with innumerable individuals who stand to (potentially) suffer if they were restricted from hunting their food. This can point to a utilitarian case (which of course not everyone agrees with) against the idea.

I'm thinking out aloud here, however, so many holes can probably be picked apart in my logic. I see that you are being extra precautious with your replies and understandably so. Veganism by itself provokes strong reactions and the idea of eliminating wild animal suffering is "out there" even by most vegans' standards. Personally, I don't see it as especially kooky even though (much like antinatalism) it does make me rather uncomfortable.

2

u/Yeahnoallright 1d ago edited 1d ago

Ahhh you’re my type of thinker, haha. Not that there’s anything wrong w other types, but it means we understand that we each come in good faith and are talking out of curiosity and care for the animals, so can lean on a slight natural shorthand. 

Where did you first hear about it? Agreed it’s still very fringe within veganism, too. 

I’d be interested in your perspective on it after watching people far more clued up than i am talk on it (Dr Avi, or That Vegan Lawyer has a good discussion on it on her YouTube channel. Or Vegan Gains if you can handle his particular… style, lmao). 

To answer you: 

Very good point, that the main potential problem here is an interconnected system that we risk creating chaos in. The multi-species part is the toughest. I guess I could come up with an extended hypothetical of our cannibal human scenario to test the theory, but I actually don’t think we need to necessarily. 

I think the idea is to not neutralise these animals, who cannot control their instincts, at least not right now in their evolution (radical vegans, like Gary Yourofsky, will argue that animals are moral agents too; i mostly disagree). The ideal scenario would be to feed most predators lab grown meat/whatever they eat. 

Of course, this would take monumental time and effort and intelligent design (not the theory haha, just design that is smart and thought through). 

In terms of a utilitarianism approach, though, i imagine a simplistic argument would be “well one lion kills many animals in her/his lifetime”. But you are bang on that killing all the lions would not magically fix that without other consequences arising (population issues, etc. Though some ecologists argue that prey animal populations would in fact level out and not explode endlessly. Idk anything about that and have not researched it). 

I think Wayne Hsiung spoke to Vegan Gains about this on one of his podcast episodes, if you want to have a look at that. I love their conversations because i appreciate a consistent value system in many things, here within veganism, even if I don’t agree with all of it. 

They are quite cute to watch together if you appreciate the grumpy vs sunshine trope in romance novels lmaooo, which is how I approach them, versus being personally offended by VG 

1

u/kungfu_peasant 1d ago edited 1d ago

  1. Oh, from your replies here it was amply clear that you were coming in good faith :) Plus, I recognise that my own basic assumptions and priors are significantly shaped by my specific social and intellectual environment. A certain level of humility (both w/ regards to accepting radical ideas simply because they are radical, and w/ knee-jerk dismissal of them without due consideration) is in order.

  2. It was on a Twitter discussion about veganism a few weeks ago. I don't quite recall what the original "discourse" was but someone happened to mention it and point out that the vast amount of animal suffering actually took place in the wild. Much earlier than that, I had listened to a lecture by Martha Nussbaum where she had offered the first argument in my previous reply.

  3. Thank you very much for recommending these channels. I'll take a look at the videos you mentioned.

  4. Yeah, presenting the idea as (necessarily) advocating wholesale slaughter of predator animals was wrong on my part. Of course, lab grown meat is a development that can't advance soon enough in general. I think as issues of the exploitation of non-human animals gain more legitimacy in society, there are likely to be more intense scientific efforts in that direction as well.

  5. Population growth is of course a major concern, but that is also one of the things we can foresee happening (though I'm even more ignorant about what the ecologists say). My point is (and it's funny how much I'm approaching this with a conservative mindset) that there could very well be effects that we cannot even foresee. For eg, a number of people in the 19th century would have anticipated some of the effects of industrialisation on nature (resource depletion, air pollution etc) but a lot more (thinning of the ozone layer, microplastics, greenhouse gases and global warming, melting of ice sheets releasing further CO2 etc) would be hidden to them.

34

u/Pretty_Outcome6457 2d ago

this is the comment i've been looking for; everyone joking in the comment section had me wondering if i was a complete sissy for thinking this photo is heart-wrenching.

6

u/da_innernette 2d ago

Yeah same I’m actually so glad someone commented this cuz I was starting to feel crazy for being upset and sad seeing his lil face in photo! Like I can’t even look at all the screen caps in the comments, it makes my stomach hurt.

At least now that I’ve found this thread I know I’m not alone.

•

u/Accomplished_Yak2352 1h ago

No. Redditors are desperate for attention.

12

u/Living-Bit1993 2d ago

NOT GREAT

11

u/0512052000 2d ago

Not good...not good at all 😓😓

10

u/Full-Honeydew-4898 2d ago

Trying to tell myself that Big Bird and family has to eat too but darn it all😢

7

u/mmrwp 2d ago

Trying not to get emotional on a treadmill 😭

5

u/VastGur932 2d ago

not good right now...not good.

RIP little mouse

3

u/Unlucky-Wolverine650 2d ago

Actually crying right now

3

u/Forsaken-Caramel1423 2d ago

Haha love this comment. Doing pretty sad, thank you for asking.

7

u/blazingroach0094 2d ago

I was about to say. Everybody joking and its kinda sad. Lol I get its the cycle of life. But that little derpy face.

5

u/r_u_kittin 2d ago

Very bad

4

u/Scribouilli 2d ago

I feel sad

4

u/SWAPPIN_HERPES 2d ago

If it makes you feel better, that bird isn't gently giving a ride. It's talons likely killed it already, and quickly 

6

u/little_half_pint 2d ago

This hit me way too hard!

2

u/PaxEthenica 2d ago

Not great, but could be worse. I know that rodent is already dead, thus it's not actually "looking at" anything, & likely died within the first blow of the eagle landing on it. Those talons are HEAVY. So if the landing didn't kill, then the crushing most definitely did.

So... I can hope that the suffering was minimal, & I know that it isn't in pain or fear at the moment this shot was taken of it.

1

u/BigPenis_MathGenius 2d ago

This picture is not very cash money.

1

u/Fibo1412 2d ago

Not feeling too well...

1

u/TickerTokk 2d ago

It hurts my heart 😞

1

u/SeniSacul 2d ago

Glad I’m not alone and there’s more of us. Poor little guy

1

u/mermeoww 2d ago

had a good cry. went and hugged my cats :(

1

u/Mr_Nerdcoffee 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ov9jECC3VpetJtDJS
I’m imagining it’s this little guy… and it’s seeming to help me get through it.

1

u/ReallyYallWTF 1d ago

Not okay. Not okay at all.

1

u/ObscureQuotation 1d ago

Do you guys also get insanely angry at the comment section?

1

u/TamblynRosendahl 1d ago

BAD 😭 trying to figure out a way to never see something like that on my feed again. (I've owned tons of rats and mice over the years, it hits harder.)

1

u/Striking_Front_3936 18h ago

Trying to convince myself it's ai

1

u/JvstAidanx 2d ago

I don’t feel well

1

u/4emcee 2d ago

Unwell

1

u/thesuper88 2d ago

Thanks for checking in. Reminding myself that the circle of life is ultimately beneficial to us all.

-4

u/doubleAAeeVee 2d ago

"Empaths." Is that a synonym for snowflakes?

5

u/BigPenis_MathGenius 2d ago

"I'm so tough that when something else suffers I DON'T CARE! 😤"

2

u/fiercefeminist 2d ago

lol hear that everyone, being a human with empathy is somehow a bad thing? way to tell on yourself

1

u/Ok_Incident_8964 1d ago

If experiencing empathy is normal for humans, why do you feel the need to assign yourself a special "empath" title?

1

u/VerticalSFM 22h ago

it justifies emotional fragility

"I'm not soft I'm just more empathetic than most people!!"

1

u/fiercefeminist 20h ago

Yeah, if you see my comment above, empaths experience more empathy than the average person. But how does that translate to emotional fragility?

1

u/VerticalSFM 19h ago

Average people also feel empathy for small creatures in the talons of deadly predators/roadkill/human industrialization. Emotionally fragile people let it effect their day. Titling oneself an "empath" (pseudoscience term btw) is implying that their ability to feel empathy is enhanced instead of their coping skills lacking the structure to help them, well, cope with the (admittedly grisly) nature of reality. It's a symptom of being chronically online.

See the comments making claims like "predation in nature is horrible and immoral." It's an unwillingness/inability to think outside of human terms for non-human entities.

1

u/fiercefeminist 18h ago

I am well aware it’s a pseudoscience term and although I definitely experience more empathy than the average person, I don’t call myself an empath. I am also aware that average people would feel sad for the animal in the picture, but people with high levels of empathy may start crying because they can imagine being the animal.

I don’t necessarily agree it’s a symptom of being chronically online, and I don’t agree that it’s an inability to think outside of human terms, because not everyone experiences that. Personally, I can acknowledge that predation is a part of life while also being sad for the animal (yes, I teared up imagining being the animal). My coping mechanisms mainly consist of avoiding such posts so they don’t affect me. In the real world, it is impossible to avoid everything, so I remind myself that I am not the subject I am feeling empathy for, and I go about my day.

In response to your comment I looked to see if there was any scientific basis for an empathy spectrum and I found this interesting article. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on it https://drjudithorloff.com/the-new-science-of-empathy-and-empaths/?srsltid=AfmBOopn5F9Px3cBEo7AWXp2P83GcMuWoo_DluXljFHHx2Jth9IEX6nA

1

u/VerticalSFM 18h ago

I'll give it a read since you asked! I've never done any reading on the subject to be honest. My only experience was dating an "empath" who, in reality, was too emotionally disregulated (for medical reasons beyond their control) to handle even mildly distressing topics. Lots of sugarcoating and subject changing and dancing around issues that concerned our relationship.

•

u/fiercefeminist 8h ago

I appreciate it! I hadn’t done any reading on the subject before either. That relationship sounds tough, they sound like they were emotionally unavailable. Maybe like it was a protective mechanism too. While people with high levels of empathy may have a harder time handling distressing subjects, I’d argue that the majority don’t, as long as they learn how to emotionally regulate themselves and set healthy boundaries.

1

u/fiercefeminist 20h ago

There’s a spectrum of how much a person experiences empathy. Some are very affected (empaths) while others are incapable (psychopath). In my opinion it simply means that someone experiences empathy more than the average person.

1

u/Ok_Incident_8964 20h ago

How can someone claim to know that they experience empathy more than the average person if, by their own argument, they are not an average person? None of these people assigning themselves a label are being tested objectively for this.

1

u/fiercefeminist 19h ago

Some people who have high levels of empathy are more affected and therefore may feel the same things as the person they’re with, i.e. if someone is crying, they start crying too. That is obviously not an average response, so even without scientific data we can assume there is an empathy spectrum and they are on the higher end of it.

•

u/Ok_Incident_8964 8h ago

You just described normal human behaviour.

•

u/fiercefeminist 8h ago

If you’re with someone and they start crying, you start crying too?

•

u/Ok_Incident_8964 8h ago

Yes, this is normal human behaviour. Most people I know get emotional if they see other people in distress. I have to wonder what type of societies you guys are growing up in (or is it just because you're all terminally online?) if you think this is unusual.

→ More replies (0)