Mayhem Reigns in the Animal Kingdom

Ever since the art of survival for the fittest descended on the animal kingdom, life had become a perilous affair. Weakened by hunger following the seemingly endless drought, animals lived under constant fear of being eaten by fellow animals driven by their own desperate need to survive.

Even more distressing was the fact that no law ensured their safety and king Lion’s hankering after raw flesh made him a partisan intermediary. He was as remote as he was quick to dismiss any complaint made by any anyone about the disappearance of a relative. Matters were yet more worsened by the fearsome but compromised ruling council who lived in denial of the state of mayhem. Hare, who always had king Lion’s ear, was finding it difficult to keep his own relatives safe from bloodthirsty carnivores as well as indulging the king.

As hunger, tension and fear mounted, nature also seemed to shun the animal kingdom. The once lush green Savannah grassland had slowly metamorphosed from yellowish brown to a reddish ochre colour of earth. When the rain clouds enticingly gathered and then frittered away, the brick-faced sun glared menacingly down to cause even more misery to a bewildered kingdom. Dry vegetation gave way to bare arid land, and dried river-beds. At the beginning of this calamity, animals could still quench their thirst by licking the wet mud from the receding river-beds, but these too had turned into deep crevassed blocks of dry bricks.

Safe haven for the animals in neighbouring chiefdom and sovereign locales, long given to lawlessness, was out of question. In any case, a weak looking animal would be easy prey to stronger and deadlier hunters in these neighbourhoods. In some chiefdom where the law protected the welfare and rights of all, king Lion and his henchmen had been declared criminals. They would be killed on sight and explanations only given later. This new rule drove king Lion and the entire ruling council into nocturnal hunting and daytime hiding.

For the rest of the kingdom, it was now survival for the fittest and doom for the weakest.

It was now left for each weak animal to develop ingenious ways of security or simply perish. Tortoise whose slow movement made his kind easy breakfast meals for the Jackals, asked his friend the hippopotamus to stamp on a lump of mud heaped on his back to form a dome like shield around him.

‘Hey Hippo, be careful you don’t turn me into mince meat,’ Tortoise groaned as Hippo brought his padded forefoot hard onto his back.

‘Trust me Torty, as the only true friend I have left, I can’t risk losing you in such a silly way.’ Hippopotamus panted back.

‘Yes indeed. I’ve had to watch my back all the time I’m near Crocodile. I hate the way he drools when my children are near him.’

The dry shield in place, he hid his head and limbs under it at the sight of an enemy. No amount of force could break the hard shell. The chameleon learnt to camouflage himself to the colour of his surrounding by chewing the leaves of the petunia plant.

Although Hippo and her family fed on dry land but hid in water when the rain eventually came, he had to be very watchful of the treacherous old Crocodile. Zebra, Wildebeest, Buffalo and Elephant and other grazing families made an agreement to walk in large groups, confident in the old adage that there was safety in numbers.

Most birds who previously flew only short distances took marathon flying lessons from Eagle. They took turns feeding her chicks the entire eight weeks of intensive training. Only Chicken and her close cousins Duck refused to change their ways, but their stubbornness nearly caused the extinction of their kind. They eventually had to migrate to live with man, at the cost of their eggs and some of their relatives.

The Giraffe who believed he could see far, and Hare the trusted king’s emissary, harboured some glimmer of hope for the original harmony that existed in the animal kingdom. They consulted with snake and Leopard if they could persuade king Lion to restore the peace and order that used to exist in the animal kingdom.

‘I don’t think it can work.’ complained Leopard, ‘I will have to give back Hyena’s five cubs, and Donkey’s two if the law was reinstated.’

‘Yeah, and king Lion will have to repay my five relatives,’ agreed Hare. ‘I’m afraid it is impossible to resurrect the dead, and just as difficult to heal the pain of loss.’

‘The law will remain as it is, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ hissed Snake.

And so, it was decided that every animal will have to watch their own backs and those of their own backyards while there was hope that a day will come when trust and friendship will once again be restored in their kingdom.