Derek Terrell: Experience of Natural Setting #1

One Occurence that I experienced in the natural world, was interacting with a group of ducks at the end of Lions Gate Bridge. In this group of ducks there appeared to be one dominant alpha male with another male that was slightly smaller in size, who were both accompanied by many females. I witnessed competition between the male ducks because whenever the smaller male would try to come close to the females the larger duck would run him away. The more dominant male would also keep all the females organized together, whether it was on land or in the water. This social behavior between the same species made me wonder how the bigger male would respond to me approaching him. So I slowly approached the females and immediately the larger male started approaching me while making a loud honking sound. Of course by then my curiosity was cured, but what I did notice when all this was going on was that when the male made this noise, it alerted all the females and pulled their attention towards me. From here I was able to see the ecological aspects of nature in the social behavior between the same species and different species.
From the practice of the wild, Gary Snyder introduces the wild part of nature by comparing it to a gray fox trotting off through the forest, ducking behind bushes, going in and out of site. From this natural setting experience I was able to witness the wild characteristics of these ducks by examining their reactions to me and amongst themselves. From this example it’s easier to recognize these instinctual actions that make up the wild nature of this species.