I’ve never seen a large carnivore kill its prey, but I’ve seen large birds hunt and catch their prey, including bald eagles and ospreys catch fish – a pretty amazing sight to see. I’ve personally had to shoot wild animals that were being destructive to our fruit trees and chickens and, on different equally unfortunate occasions, a couple of feral cats. Not something I enjoyed by any stretch but it kind of had to be done (suspected rabies).
If I was on safari in Africa and saw a large predator take down its prey I would likely be pretty amazed. Watching a wild animal in its own habitat do its natural thing and all that. I’m not sure I would classify that as enjoyment, but I’d definitely be amazed and probably a little awed.
As others have mentioned if the prey suffered prolonged agony while being slowly eaten alive or some similarly gruesome scenario then yes, that would bother me.
If I knew ahead of time how I’d react, I’d go or not go based on that knowledge. But I really wouldn’t know how I’d react to something like a cheetah bringing down, killing, and eating an impala until I actually saw it. So my sympathies are with the tour member who may not have known it would disturb him until he saw it.
As long as he didn’t try to make anyone else feel bad about going out to watch more of the same, what’s the problem??
I’ve swatted my share of mosquitos, spiders, and houseflies. A few years ago, I had a couple dozen crickets in my basement, and had to go around vacuuming them all up with the wet/dry vac.
At the house we rent each year on the water at Anna Maria island, we routinely see shore birds dive into the water and come away with a fish for breakfast.
Neither of the above disturbs me, and I doubt I’d be any more disturbed by a hawk grabbing a squirrel than I am by the squashed bodies of squirrels on the pavement, though that sight grosses me out during the brief moment it’s in sight as I drive.
I’m a bit more disturbed by the sight of dead deer by the side of the road, though a good part of it is that they’ve already been there awhile in almost all cases, and they have the reek of death about them - especially unavoidable if I’m on my bicycle when I pass them.
The impala being killed by the cheetah wouldn’t have that reek, since it would be a fresh kill. Would seeing the actual kill disturb me? I don’t know. Should I avoid such a trip because I honestly don’t know until I experience it in person? Can’t see why I should.
Reading about such things (as distinct from watching them, especially watching them live and in person) I comfort myself with the notion that a kind of shock sets in, especially with prey animals, which has a kind of anesthetic effect, so that the process is not as painful as we imagine it would be if that were us there being eaten in stages. I don’t know if that’s true, but the thought is comforting anyway. As for turning my head away due to personal discomfort, yeah, I probably would. I’m kind of a wimp anyway.
I would squirm a little seeing a predator/prey thing happen but I would not complain about it. I get that is how nature operates and it is fascinating to see even if a little uncomfortable. Can anyone really watch a baby impala being killed and not feel sad for the impala?.
That said, it certainly would not stop me from going out again the next day and I would never describe myself as “traumatized.”
Before some asshole idiot put out rodent poison, we used to have a coppers hawk who would come and enjoy the buffet, making the term “bird feeder” have multiple meanings. Being totally original, we named him “Coop”.
He prefered the doves, and sometimes we would see a big mess of gray feathers and know Coop had struck. But yeah a couple of times we were able to watch him take a bird.
We had some robins nesting in a nook right under a high window, so the top of the nest peeked out above the line of the window. From the loft, you could see the chicks poking their heads up in silhouette as momma bird fed them.
So cute!
Then the hawk swooped in and took the whole nest one morning while my wife was squeeing over the chicks.
That right there was traumatic.
I had my own trauma that morning as the wife called me at work sobbing over the lost chicks, she managed only to croak out my name before the line went dead. That was a disturbing 5 minutes before we got an actual call through and I found out she wasn’t being strangled to death.
Sensible - but to be clear, the fellow the OP referred to wasn’t complaining about anything, he just declined to participate.
Unfortunately, it seems far more likely that you’re witnessing learned helplessness: the prey animal has learned that there’s not a goddam thing they can do to escape, so they give up the fight, irrespective of any suffering that’s inflicted on them. This has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments with animals:
As I think is obvious by this point, Nature is not “nice”. With precious few exceptions it’s utterly selfish individuals pursuing their own interests with all their might. Or geophysical forces doing their thing with implacable indifference to, well, everything in their path.
That can be real disconcerting if someone hasn’t really thought about that before.
Slightly off topic, but in thinking about hunting, particularly deer hunting, one can see it as the ultimate in free range organic cruelty free farming. Just let the critters out to live their lives in the open land, unburdened by factory farming, fences, overcrowding, and when they’re old enough to harvest, a quick relatively pain free death.
Except, being out in the wild sucks. It’s cold, wet, you spend all day searching for food and avoiding predators, fighting for dominance with your male peers, it’s brutal and cruel, then you get shot, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky you get hit by a car, or break your leg, or get old and sick and die alone.
I can’t find it now, but there’s a quote that says something like “The reality is that nature is a violent arena of interspecies combat where murder for gain is an everyday occurrence.”
Along the same lines, there’s Werner Herzog’s observation “I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature.”
Small cats hunting is pretty brutal and impressive too. We got a barn cat a few years ago and damn, that girl could hunt. Mice, voles, moles, bunnies, birds (and a toad that made her trip balls for a while; I thought she was a goner!)
I even videoed her hunting/playing with a chipmunk once. I stopped before she killed and ate it, but the lead-up to the kill was fascinating. How she toyed with it, would back off and let it think it was safe, then pounce again, etc. And that little chipmunk put up a hell of a fight! But ultimately, she went away well-fed.
Anyone not comprehending the hazards of AI need only look to nature for a lesson. AI, like wild animals, knows no loyalty to your species; if it decides you are a threat, or that you are made of materials that it can use to further its own interests, it will not hesitate to cut you down with zero concerns about any loss or suffering it may incur upon you or your kin.
I’d put that in the “murder for gain” category. There’s a battle happening over territory and resources - the mouse wants to live in your warm dry house and eat your food - and you’ve won the battle by killing your opponent. You didn’t hate the mouse, you just saw it as a threat to your stuff.
