Blue Planet II doesn’t pull any punches. A crab needing to reach the feeding grounds that are so far away has to contend with an eel and an octopus, both which are known enemies and are more than ready to consume the crab the moment that it slips. This seems like the worst case of Frogger ever found in nature. First the crab has to make its way across the rocks, skipping through the open water as much as possible in an attempt to avoid the eel, and then it has to somehow avoid being snagged by the octopus, which can change its color and blend in with its surroundings. Not too hard right?
I have to admit I’ve never seen an eel on land before, and the Moray eel seems particularly mean as it goes after its intended meal. The octopus doesn’t seem any better but really and honestly there are no bad guys in nature. Everything that’s there is fighting to survive every day and without apology since it’s what they know from birth to the moment they pass on. The instinct to survive is what separates the living from the eaten and as you can see in the clip these crabs really don’t want to be eaten. The eel and the octopus want to feast and yet they have to be quick enough to earn their lunch or they don’t eat either.
Nature is it’s own balancing act really, animals eat other animals or they don’t survive. They don’t tend to worry about a lot of other nonsense apart from eating, surviving, reproducing, and finding a safe place to rest every now and again. Their concerns so far as we know are pretty simple and to complicate them might seem extremely silly and lead only to resistance and resentment. That’s why animals are in many was still better than humans. They don’t question their nature and they don’t tend to change it on a whim.
It’s not a perfect system really but it’s a lot better than what you find in humanity. After that harrowing ordeal of jumping from rock to water and back to rock the crab won’t need a ‘safe place’ in order to pull itself together. It will need sustenance and then a lot of luck to get back to the point it started from. It won’t blame the eel or the octopus for making its life harder but it certainly won’t just lay down and be victimized either. Animals, for all they are simple in some regards, are still much more adept at understanding the world they live in than humans are. The survival instincts they’re born with and cultivate teach them everything they need to know and everything that will help them get through one day after another.
Humans tend to have to have help when it comes to some of the most basic things in life. To be fair we deal with a lot more pressing issues than a crab, an eel, or an octopus, but we certainly make more of them than we should at times.
Follow Us
