Saved by the lions
In June 2005, a 12-year-old girl was abducted by four men on her way home from school in an Ethiopian village. A week later, the police finally managed to track down where the criminals kept the child: police cars were immediately sent to the place. To hide from persecution, the criminals decided to change their place of deployment and take the schoolgirl away from her native village. Three lions were already waiting for the kidnappers who had come out of hiding. The criminals fled, leaving the girl, but then a miracle happened: the animals did not touch the child. On the contrary, they carefully guarded him until the police arrived at the scene, and only then they went into the forest. The frightened girl said that the abductors mocked her, beat her and wanted to sell her. The lions did not even try to attack her. A local zoologist explained the behavior of the animals by saying that, probably, the crying of the girl reminded the lions of the sounds made by their cubs, and they rushed to help the baby. Eyewitnesses considered the incident a real miracle.
Protected by dolphins
In late 2004, lifeguard Rob Hoves and his daughter and her friends were relaxing on Whangarei Beach in New Zealand. A man and children were carelessly splashing in the warm ocean waves, when suddenly they were surrounded by a flock of seven bottlenose dolphins. “They were absolutely wild,” Rob recalls, “circling around us, beating the water with their tails.” Rob and his daughter’s girlfriend Helen swam twenty meters away from the other two girls, but one of the dolphins caught up with them and dived into the water right in front of them. “I also decided to dive in and see what the dolphin would do next, but when I leaned closer in the water, I saw a huge gray fish (it turned out later that it was a great white shark), says Rob. – She swam right next to us, but when she saw a dolphin, she went to her daughter and her friend, who were swimming at a distance. My heart went to the heels. I looked at the action unfolding before me with bated breath, but I realized that there was almost nothing I could do. The dolphins reacted with lightning speed: they again surrounded the girls, preventing the shark from approaching, and did not leave them for another forty minutes, until the shark lost interest in them. Dr. Rochelle Konstantin, from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, commented: “Dolphins are known for always coming to the aid of helpless creatures. Bottlenose dolphins are especially famous for this altruistic behavior, with which Rob and the children were lucky enough to encounter.
Responsive sea lion
California resident Kevin Hince considers himself lucky: thanks to a sea lion, he managed to stay alive. At the age of 19, in the moment of a severe mental disorder, a young man threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This bridge is one of the most popular places to commit suicide. After 4 seconds of free fall, a person crashes into water at a speed of about 100 km / h, receives multiple fractures, after which it is almost impossible to survive. “In the first split second of the flight, I realized that I was making a terrible mistake,” Kevin recalls. “But I survived. Despite numerous injuries, I was able to swim to the surface. I rocked on the waves, but I was unable to swim to the shore. The water was ice cold. Suddenly, I felt something touch my leg. I got scared, thinking it was a shark, and tried to hit it to scare it away. But the animal only described a circle around me, dived and began to push me up to the surface. A pedestrian crossing the bridge noticed a floating man and a sea lion circling around him and called for help. Rescuers arrived quickly, but Kevin still believes that if it were not for the responsive sea lion, he would hardly have survived.
smart deer
In February 2012, a woman was walking through the city of Oxford, Ohio, when a man suddenly attacked her, pulled her into the yard of a nearby house and tried to strangle her. He probably wanted to rob his victim, but these plans, fortunately, did not come true. A deer jumped out from behind a bush in the courtyard of the house, which frightened the criminal, after which he hurried to hide. Sergeant John Varley, who arrived at the scene of the crime, admitted that he did not remember such an incident in his entire 17-year career. As a result, the woman escaped with only minor scratches and bruises – and all thanks to an unknown deer, who arrived in time to help.
Warmed by beavers
Rial Guindon from Ontario, Canada went camping with his parents. The parents took a boat and decided to go fishing, while their son stayed on the shore. Due to the fast current and malfunctions, the ship capsized, and the adults drowned in front of the shocked baby. Frightened and lost, the child decided to get to the nearest town to call for help, but by sunset he realized that he would not be able to walk through the forest at night, which means he would have to spend the night in the open. The exhausted boy lay down on the ground and suddenly felt “something warm and fluffy” nearby. Deciding that it was a dog, Rial fell asleep. When he woke up in the morning, it turned out that three beavers, clinging to him, saved him from the cold of the night.
These incredible stories show that, despite the widespread perception of wild animals as a source of threat and danger, we have much in common with them. They are also capable of showing altruism and compassion. They are also ready to protect the weak, especially when he does not expect help at all. Finally, we are much more dependent on them than we ourselves realize. Therefore, and not only – they deserve the right to live their own free life in our common home called planet Earth.