 A recent study confirms what the Bible says about the nature of animals. The results fly in the face of evolutionary theory.
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A report released by Dr. Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conversation Society says the fear of predators is not a natural instinct in animals. He says it is a learned behaviour.
This revelation is a bit of a shock for many evolutionists who believe the fear of predators is a naturally evolving instinct that enabled species to survive.
Berger came to this conclusion after studying the relationship between prey and predator in 19 ecosystems in Russia, Greenland, Canada and the US. He focused specifically on four types of prey animals -- elk, moose, bison and caribou and their natural predators wolves, tiger and bear. He compared systems where predators existed with those where they didn't.
He noticed that prey-animals only feared predators, if they regularly encountered them. Once the predators were removed from the environment, prey animals lost their fear of their natural enemies.
In his study, Berger played sound recordings of predators around test animals that had no predators in their area and compared their reactions to similar species that regularly encountered predators in their surroundings.
Berger said "elk in the mountains of Siberia -- who subsist alongside tigers, wolves and bears -- responded five times faster to the recordings than did elk in the Rocky Mountain Park (Colorado) where major predators have been absent for some 90 years."
As well, when predators were not around, the animals did not participate in typical defensive reactions such as flight or clustering together.
The Biblical record
This study reveals the basic instincts of animals are still in harmony with how God originally created them.
So how was the animal kingdom intended to function?
We get a picture of this in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 11, the prophet talks of a future day when there will be a dramatic change in the natural environment of the world:
"And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them,
Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lay down together,
And the lion will eat straw like an ox.
The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. (Is 11:6-9 NASV)
It will be a day when prey will have no fear of predator and they will actually co-exist peacefully side by side.
The reason there is no fear is found in the latter part of verse 7 -- the lion will eat straw like the ox. Essentially, the natural life cycle as we understand it today will be dramatically altered. What are today considered predators will be vegetarians.
Berger's research confirms that prey animals fear of predators is not natural instinct but a learned behaviour. If predators never attacked, the two would be lying side by side exactly as Isaiah saw it.
Isaiah re-emphasizes this theme again in chapter 65:25 when he states the wolf and lamb will lay together. In this verse, Isaiah reiterates what was mentioned earlier when he says snakes will eat earth. This simply re-emphasizes the fact that the predators' source of nourishment will not be other animals.
In this chapter, Isaiah puts this strange occurrence in the time of the new heaven and new earth which the prophet refered to in verse 17.
Though Isaiah is looking ahead to a future day, most theologians believe these verses reflect how God intended nature to function at creation. Animals were never intended to prey on one another, as vegetation was to be their natural source of nourishment.
The reason God didn’t put a fear of predators in prey animals is because they didn’t need it. The reason it never evolved is because God created.
Of course, we are aware of a group of bears who survive solely on vegetation. Panda bears live off Bamboo shoots. Though evolutionists have looked upon this as an unnatural instinct for bears, in fact from a Biblical perspective the exact opposite is true. Meat-eating bears are the aberration.
Predators viewing prey
We have seen evidence prey don't have a natural fear of predators, but is the reverse possible? Could predators look at prey as anything but the next meal?
A story from the Samburu National Park in Kenya says yes.
On Christmas day 2001, Park Wardens noticed a lioness attack a mother Oryx (African antelope) and her calf. The mother fled and the lioness carried the calf away in its mouth.
This was nature at its evolutionary best -- survival of the fittest. The calf was destined to be the lion's next meal. But then an incredible thing happened. Instead of killing the calf the lioness began to nuzzle it and actually started to care for it.
At first it was thought the lioness -- who they named Larsens -- had mistaken the calf for a cub, but that theory was dumped when the lioness allowed the calf to return to its mother to nurse. Apparently, Larsens realized it was different species and she could not feed the calf.
The young Oryx followed the lioness through the savannah and curling up beside Larsens, sleeping exactly as Isaiah prophesied (11:6b). This was a testament of the natural instinct God put in them at creation.
However, eventually the young calf was killed by another lion, while Larsens slept. The wardens said when she awoke Larsens circled the lion that killed the calf roaring repeatedly.
The wardens also noticed Larsens never killed Oryx, only eating warthogs when she was hungry.
Then on Valentines Day 2002, the park wardens saw Larsens had adopted another Oryx calf. This time, however, she was more protective driving away other lions that came too close.
All creation groans
So what happened to change the natural order of life as God intended it?
The Apostle Paul explains it this way:
"For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly,
but because of Him who subjected it in hope
That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Rom 8:20-22 NASV)
In this verse, due to man's fall into sin, all creation was subject to a futile, meaningless existence. Paul adds that animals did not participate in this existence willingly, it was forced upon them.
Isaiah explains what happened in chapter 24:6, we he said a curse devours the earth -- a curse put on it in Genesis 3 by God as a direct result of Adam's sin.
When God cursed the earth, the earth turned against man in a sense becoming his enemy.
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you" (NASV v 17b, 18a)
This same curse affected all animal life. From the Garden of Eden, the world turned into a hard place where it would be a struggle to survive. Instead of bounty, there would drought and famine. This would put animals, birds and reptiles under intense pressure and they would be forced into unnatural lifestyles just to survive.
Perhaps one of the most curious stories I read on the effects of this curse involves the "vampire finches." It is a testament of how the cursed earth forced finches to gain nutrition from unnatural sources.
In a recent edition of Creation magazine, David Catchpoole writes a story about finches that sucked the blood of other creatures in order to survive.
Many of us are familiar with finches which use their hard beaks to break open tough seeds for food. However, on Wolfe Island, a group of ground Finches used their beaks to break the skin of the Booby bird in order to consume its blood.
The island which is part of the Galapagos Archipelago is very dry. When the rains come there is usually enough seed for the finches to survive on. However, during the frequent drought periods, the finches were forced to find other food sources.
In 2006, a film team from ABC's Natural History unit recorded this disturbing phenomenon.
A finch landed on the tale of the Masked Booby -- a fish eating bird not affected by the drought. The finch broke open the skin and started sipping the blood. Other finches then lined up behind the first bird, waiting their turn at the gruesome feast.
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, the earth was cursed and creation wrenched. Drought and famine became the natural order of the day and the finch reveals the desperate situations that led some animals becoming carnivorous.
Conclusion
But despite the massive upheaval in nature due to man's sin we can still see remnants of how creation was originally intended to function.
Source: And the lion shall lie down with the lamb (www.naturescornermagazine.com) / Prey Not Hard-wired to Fear Predators (www.sciencedaily.com: June 22, 2007) / Vampire finches of the Galapagos, by David Catchpoole (Creation magazine: June-August 2007)
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