Dying bat

This a a dying bat that I found right behind my tent as I was getting ready to pack it up. It was still alive and struggling to move into the nearby woods. Although I couldn't see anything physically wrong with him, he must've hurt himself the prior evening. It occurred to me that an injury that would send us off to the doctor for a splint or a pill dooms this little guy (and the vast, vast majority of all animals other than humans or their domesticated pets) to either a slow, lonely, miserable death by starvation, or a terrifying, ignoble death of being eaten. We all marvel at the jaw-dropping beauty of nature, but often forget that while nature is indeed awe-inspiring, it's also (even mostly) brutal, callous, and cruelly indifferent. To all of us. And maybe that's part of it's majesty. In any case, it's nice to be reminded of that now and then. I thought about putting this poor fella out of his misery with a big rock, but decided to leave him to his natural fate, whatever that may be. I felt bad leaving him, but would've felt bad killing him as well. You can probably tell by now that I had probably too much time to spend with nothing but my own thoughts...

Done