Man alone is different. So utterly, sorrowfully and needlessly different. The male bird has to compete, toil and bend backwards to please and win a mate. He has to fend off other contenders, build a nest, decorate it and put on an impressive display to induce the female bird to raise a family with him. The stag and the lion which eats it, both have to fight bloody duels with rivals for the right to earn the favours of the female. The serpent has to wrestle his opponents down for the same prize. The salmon, both male and female, accomplish an uphill mission, literally, before they return to the place of their birth to produce their young. From the sea where they have spent all their adult life, they swim up a mighty river, vault upwards over slippery rocks of a waterfall, thrash their way up a rough, shallow stream and reach spawning grounds. When a pair settles down to produce a calf, a clutch of eggs or a million hatchlings, it is only an intermediate happy ending. The parents then guard the young or eggs with zeal, like the crocodile and the king cobra, impart body heat like penguins in the icy Antarctica. Penguin parents take turns to travel long distances to feed and return to feed the young offspring that is sheltered all the time under the furry fold of the other parent, who stays upright for the whole period. Little birds make hundreds of forays into the woods to fetch morsels for their growing chicks while the bigger raptors fly tirelessly for miles on end looking for food for the fledglings. The mother crocodile carries the babies in her mouth one by one from nest on the ground to water and continues to guard over them. The salmon die soon after performing their duty of procreation. Sub-adults of lion and cheetah receive training in hunting from the mother, in addition to food and protection. The cheetah mother even places herself in harm's way to draw a potential killer's attention away from her young. Parent birds and beasts, after providing their young with boundless warmth, care, food and security, bid goodbye to the offspring which have survived to reach adolescence. Parent and offspring may not even cross paths again in many cases.Man alone has expectations. Quid pro quo. Care for me because I brought you up. The consequences frequently are agonising. Intelligent, yes, but superior? Pathetically different, certainly.
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