The Seagull Chases the Rat Out
Why were they here, why?
When there was some faint hint of light in the sky past sunset, a rat scurried out of its burrow on to a grassy patch. It raced towards a row of dustbins hoping there would be something. During the sunlit time it had had heard the unusual sounds of humans. As it was about to climb into the bin, a seagull swooshed and chased it till it scurried towards its nest.
On the way when the rat raised its head and bared its teeth, the four incisors, the seagull flapped its wings fiercely and started to bite at it with its beak.
The rat realised it cannot gnaw the beaky bird and scurried to its burrow with its tail intact between its back legs.
ׁDuring the pre-Covid-19 era, food for rodents was plenty in Slottskogen. The nocturnal creatures had the best of the times.
Unlike other living beings on terra firma, they never saw the worst of the times for they have the ability for adaptability unlike other life forms on Earth.
During the Covid-19 times, food is scarce. There is no lockdown in Sweden, but social-distancing measures and the fear of the infection of the coronavirus disease has made the people to venture out of their houses when it is necessary.
In Slottskogen, the park-cum-wooded area in Gothenburg, the foot traffic has fallen drastically. Social gatherings over food and drinks, and picnics almost stopped due to the pandemic.
The rodents were witnessing the worst of the times: food is scarce, but they are exploring, adapting.
.
At the entrance of its nest among the bushes, the rat stood on its hind legs gasping, watching the seagulls, who paraded their presence.
Seagulls’ habitats are not parks, not woods but waterbodies.
The river was near and the sea was not far: Why were they here, why? The inability to get answers for whys gnawed the rat, and it had nothing to gnaw except to scan the flock of seagulls.
Some of seagulls were in the air, screaming; some were on the grass poking for morsels and bits of flesh but finding nothing, screaming.
The humans were unbothersome beings — unless stepped into their built-up habitats — who left their leftovers in the dustbins, the rat reflected.
(The rat was unaware that the rats are eaten as a delicacy in one corner of the world. Karl Gruber sourced a report for BBC’s Food titled ‘The countries where rats are on the menu’. The feature said, “On 7 March every year, in a remote village in the hills of north-east India, the Adi tribe celebrates Unying-Aran, an unusual festival with rats as the culinary experience. One of the Adi’s favourite dishes is a stew called bule-bulak oying, made with the rat’s stomach, intestines, liver, testes, foetuses, all boiled together with tails and legs plus some salt, chili and ginger.”)
And, the ducks were gentler creatures, who walked shakily and quacked only when necessary, thought the rat, whom it saw every day in the evenings.
The rat went into its burrow: come darkness!
PS: Dear reader, if you enlarge the image, you can see the seagull on the right and the rat on the left. The seagull did chase the rat out.
