>This week we are honouring the intelligence and charm of animals! In this day and age it can be easy for some to forget that animals are not only alive and conscious, but also have great intelligence and feelings! Anyone who has a pet knows what I am talking about, but there are many people who have never been close enough to an animal to really appreciate them. So this week we are celebrating the animal kingdom by sharing our personal stories of a time that you witnessed an animal do something smart! Let's show the world how amazing animal are!


In the realm of the animal kingdom, I love dog or specifically young ones a puppy. Back in my home country, Malaysia, I used to adopt about 2 of them, different timeline, but I gave them away when they are big enough to accompany my living alone grandmother. 
Currently, I'm living in a place that we rent and their policy not allowing us to have a pet. 
I think its fine because having two toddlers is enough making my hands full. 

So for this @ecotrain QOTW entry post, I will share about my observation on a family of white stork bird and an adult baboon with a cub through a video that I stumble upon my other social media platform.
I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and saw a very disturbing video of 
a grown-up white stork, the iconic bird that humans use in cartoons or animation as a symbolic bird to deliver their new bundle of joy.
Well after watching that video I feel cringe of this bird but at the same time, I understand why they did what they have done..
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/37/28/28/372828eebbfd6d01865d3d2187e85b1b--shower-images-baby-bundles.jpg

<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/37/28/28/372828eebbfd6d01865d3d2187e85b1b--shower-images-baby-bundles.jpg">image source</a>

The video I saw was similar to this video below;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDGVSEm-gk
a white stork mother has to eliminate one of her weakest chicks in order to ensure the survival of her other chicks that are stronger and have more chances to survive the scarcity they are facing.

I think its a smart move because unlike we humans, they don't have child support or any community support to support the single parent if their spouse happened to die while hunting for food for the family or just simply not enough food supply for them to survive because their habitat been destroy by us human for our development 
or any kind of activity that need the natural habitat to be destroyed and making the ecosystem imbalance then 
somewhere along the chain of animal kingdom need sacrifice.

I was a bit disturbed and feeling sad by the fact that nature has to go like this to ensure their survival. 

This also reminds me of us human in some part of the world, we humans had the history of almost the same like this white stork parent, for example, they have to sell their children or send them away to another country to become a <a href="https://www.endslaverynow.org/learn">modern slave</a> to survive their poverty and scarcity.

All I see in Nature was the beauty of it, but behind the scene, some heart-wrenching decision like this has to be made by the parent to ensure their other children live on.

>In birds, parental infanticide is a means of saving energy. By eliminating the individual which has the least chance of survival, the adults aim to increase that of the others. This type of behavior has been observed in the Eurasian coot, the Mexican gull, the white stork, and the black stork. In a study carried out in Andalusia, parental infanticide was observed in 15% of white stork nests.
<a href="http://www.birdcenter.org/en/news/news/715-un-duro-sacrificio-para-una-esperanza-de-vida">source</a>





On the other hand, the video below showing this family of white stork looking so happy and live like how a loving family supposes to live and I think they are living in abundance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E85JzAsLG1c&t=315s

On another part of the animal kingdom, this male baboon was grooming this cub for its potential killing for food later after he has done with the flea snacks on the cub skin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5KMBX2cKGk
</strong>
According to the article by Kim Bellware in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/05/baboon-lion-cub-video/">That video of a baboon grooming a lion cub is cute but probably doesn’t have a happy ending</a>
The Safari Ranger who witnessed the rare sights of baboon and lion cub tender moment didn’t know the condition of the cub but suspected it was uninjured, at least until the baboon started to carry it in its sharp teeth, causing it to cry out. He’s not sure whether the cub survived.
>"
Generally, when they get ahold of a lion or leopard cub, they would kill it immediately,” Schultz said. Adult baboons are known to kill leopard and lion cubs when they find them unattended by adult lions.

>“What was taking place was 100 percent natural; it was nature at its best,” Schultz said. “It might seem cruel to us, but if this baboon kills a predator, it knows in two years’ time the roles will be reversed if the lion gets its chance.”

I'm kind of agree with the safari ranger because that's the smartest thing an animal does to ensure their survival but feel sad at the same time thinking about how brutal and rough the life of animal kingdom to keep themselves alive.