A conversation tonight reminded me of a scene I saw in South Dakota a few years ago: A pair of German tourists in the Black Hills, attempting to separate a mother buffalo from her new spring calf, so they could pose their children with the calf for a photograph.
The scene is still vivid in my memory. The mother buffalo snorting, the herd starting to look up and circle around her, the males beginning to stamp. Our attempt to call the tourists away loudly enough that they understood their danger, but not loudly enough to add to the buffalos’ reaction. In the end, the mother began to swing her head, knocking against the woman and, thankfully, causing the family to run back to their car.
Now, my question, meant seriously. How many generations do people have to be removed from rural life before they forget, to this extent, one of the most ancient lessons of humankind: Don’t get between an animal and her young? Especially not in the spring.
June 10th, 2010 | 12:28 am
In a literal sense I would say one generation. If you have not been around animals (i.e. rural life) you never learn that lesson by practical experience.
But on the other hand “Don’t get between a mother and her cub” is a folk aphorism in English. So long as that remains the case I think its unlimited generations (I certainly grew up with no experience of breeding animals, we had a vegetable garden, so I’m not immune to agricultural concepts, but that’s hardly rural. And yet I know that expression).
The real question is whether that aphorism exists in German.
June 10th, 2010 | 8:39 am
Jody, in all candidness, you don’t need to be around animals to learn this lesson. We’ve been watching the same thing play out on the national scene with our collective Mommie — the MSM and her beloved boy, Obama.
But as to your serious question of how many generations removed from rural life would it take to remove the most ancient of lessons of humankind, I would guess for most folks 2 would do the trick.
June 10th, 2010 | 8:56 am
If the mother is pregnant with an unwanted child there is no danger to any creature, human or otherwise…expect the one in her womb.
June 10th, 2010 | 9:17 am
Oops, that ought to have read : in all candour.
Note to self, never address Jody until after 2 cups of coffee.
June 10th, 2010 | 9:23 am
I hunted pheasants on opening day in Winner South Dakota last year. In the evening at the bar one of the locals offered, for a fee, an excursion to poach a buffalo. I decided to take him up on the offer but soon after he left the bar and did not return. What is the exact location of the buffalo that were antagonizing the Germans?
June 10th, 2010 | 12:05 pm
I’ve seen the same thing with visitors posing their children next to elk at Yellowstone and mountain sheep at Glacier National Park.
Most people among the witnesses to these events were trying to make them aware of the danger, so I don’t think it has anything to do with generations removed from rural life. I think the people who do it are just not that bright; if they weren’t placing themselves in danger in this way, they’d be doing it in another.
Fortunately, the animals typically just wander away. Maybe they can sense the presence of fools and so grant them more patience than they would the more intelligent folks.
June 10th, 2010 | 1:37 pm
I more or less agree with Andrew. Lots of my knowledge of rural life comes from Sunday school. Good Christian education makes sure everyone knows how stupid sheep are and how wheat ripens and, yes, never come between a mama bear and her cubs. That’s in Ezekiel, I think. Thus, this ancient lesson of humankind exists in at least one great German work: Luther’s Bible.
June 10th, 2010 | 1:57 pm
Many city people think nature is a “park”, and a place that tourists go for entertainment, or a religious/Grizzly Man experience. B16 in his New years message seemed to touch on this–a wrong attitude with the nature of our bodies correlates with a wrong attitude with nature outside of our bodies, i.e., the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is there from similar vices that allow contraception.
The SD bison vs. tourist stories seem to be the most abundant, however. This is about the 10th I’ve heard in my lifetime.
Also, if you are going to jog where there are cougars, carry a gun.
June 10th, 2010 | 3:23 pm
I’ve got another story, related to Diane’s and TSW’s comments, from my sister’s summer internship at Yosemite: People would walk across a large parking lot, into the air conditioned visitors’ center, and ask her what the weather was outside.
June 10th, 2010 | 9:55 pm
I find it kind of touching that people have to learn to fear animals (and people). Our defaults seem to have been set in Eden.
My young son wants to hug every strange dog he meets. He seem not to believe me that there are bad dogs. I’m now thinking that it’s probably a good idea to have harmless but cranky pets for children–nippy Chihuahuas and Scotties and so on. Golden Retrievers give children a false sense of the world.
June 14th, 2010 | 1:18 am
Jody, I bet I know just where that happened, on the road through Wind Cave NP just before it heads north into Custer SP, near one of those broad parking lots placed for folks to pull over and enjoy the view. It’s all arranged to look like a petting zoo, and those yellow calves are cute. Pretty stupid, but I don’t blame them (it was probably their “Verweile doch, du bist so schoen” moment and y’all spoiled it). But I have a suggestion to keep the kiddies in the car, more rattle snakes. I hate the varments, but they would keep the Germans on the road.
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