Learning...

Tall grasses sway in the Wyoming breeze. The afternoon sun is casting shadows across the landscape while insects dance on the wind across the lush creek bottom. A field mouse noses his way through the dense grasses, his small feet carrying him along with lightning quick speed toward his burrow. He stops to pick up the grass seeds littering the ground. His cheeks are already full of the small seeds, yet he still crams more into his mouth. He has no idea that death stalks the long grass. On silent feet, a mother fox slips up on the unaware rodent. She moves slowly and deliberately, every muscle taught as she closes the distance. With practiced precision, she leaps into the air and comes down in a graceful arc upon the greedy seed hoarding rodent. His squeaky cries are stifled in an instant as she mouths her catch and points her nose to the west. She is hungry, but this small catch will be taken to her pups. Several small mouths await her catch, and rely on her skills as a hunter for survival. Twenty mice, thirteen rabbits, three ducks and one stray cat have fallen to her hunting skills in the last two weeks. She and her mate hunt relentlessly, day and night, to feed the pups and themselves. Every kill brings an assurance of survival for her and her family.

The pups can smell their mothers scent on the wind near the den. Every head comes up and awaits the food their mother will surely bring. All but one, he sits alone near the den scratching his red fur with black stocking feet. He has discovered something today, he has become a hunter. The grasshoppers near the den are easy prey. All he has to do is stalk and pounce. His young belly is full of the tasty insects. Tomorrow he will try for something bigger, maybe one of those distant antelope or one of the cows in a nearby pasture. Yes, he is a hunter, a predator, the future of his species is secure, he, will survive.