I watched a crow chase and catch a small lizard in my backyard. We host a variety of them, Pail Striped Whiptail, New Mexico Whiptail, Western Zebra Tail, Sagebrush, a regular menagerie. Most are small, but there are a couple that give you pause when you come across them.

There are Gila Monster lizards in the desert surrounding us. Shy creatures but also venomous. Not normally seen in developed areas. But the word normally does not mean never. And, like picking mushrooms, if you’re not sure why take a chance?

I couldn’t tell what kind the crow had hanging out of its mouth, but I could tell the lizard was not happy with its predicament. My first reaction was to rush out and save the little guy, but I caught myself. Who am I to interfere with nature?

It wasn’t the first lizard eaten by a crow, and it won’t be the last lizard eaten in this continuity of life and death.

When you consider that at any given moment millions of creatures, from the tiniest one-cell organisms to the largest creature on earth (at the moment) the blue whale die, you realize death is the most common thing on earth. Every day something eats something or gets eaten.

It is the most natural thing. If we weren’t meant to consume some of our fellow creatures why are they so tasty? I’m pretty sure I’d dislike the taste of live lizard, but personal preferences run the gamut. To that crow, it was a five star meal.

So those self-proclaimed animal saviors in various organizations might make themselves feel better. But they are engaged in the most unnatural behavior on earth.

Yesterday, somewhere in the vast oceans of this planet, a fish began its day foraging for food and never made it to today.

Yesterday, somewhere in the vast savannahs of Africa a gazelle grazed on grass one moment then was taken down by a lion.

Yesterday, that lizard in my backyard was happily munching bugs and soon the byproduct from the crow’s digestion of his remains will likely decorate some car, requiring a trip to the car wash.

I could have saved him (or her, it’s hard to tell gender when all you see are a tail and two rear legs bouncing around in a crow’s beak), but it would have not changed anything. Eventually the lizard would either be eaten by something or, after it died, be consumed by insects and bacteria. And the crow would not swear off lizard because of me.

That is nature. It is not cruel, it is not heartless, it is not brutal. It is just the nature of the universe.

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