The Fallacy Of Cuteness, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37)

It is a trap
Easy to assume
If it is a cute animal
How can it meet it’s doom

Take a duckling
For example
It is cute
When it quacks for it’s mother

But we falsely assume
All the chicks survive
She’ll protect them all
When they hatch and arrive

If late to hatch
Or born a runt
If it cant keep up
Falls back too much

The mother won’t
Always come to defense
If it sees the chick
As a burden to them

We do often see
In nature that of adoption
Like a pride of lionesses
Care for other’s cubs

But not always the case
If cub ages not the same
If one is a straggler
Abandons her claim

In other avian
It is quite common
For the weak chick
To be tossed out of the nest

A buffalo calf
Could be sacrificed
To a lion stalking it
For more to survive

I like to root
For the underdog
I like to see
Success for all

Nature doesn’t
Work that way
Cuteness doesn’t
Always get it’s way.
(end)

Far to often laypeople think anything cute always has the upper hand. Not in nature. Allegators and crocks are viciously protective of their nest and young, at least until they get the babies to water. Mother crocks and gators can pick up their young in their mouths very gently and carry them to safety.

In other cases mothers and fathers of many species will kick the runts or weak out of the home or abandon them or even kill them. Mother ducks are no different.

Cute makes us feel warm and fuzzy, but nature isn’t ways warm and fuzzy.