Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Which will win?

The warm summer day was perfect for Hal and Rosie to picnic by the pond. They found the only available shade tree left, and Rosie unpacked the basket she prepared, not caring about the ants that would soon start smelling the food.

“Hal, look over there,” Rosie said, pointing to three rabbits and four squirrels chasing their kind around the tree and in the bushes.

Rosie stopped in the middle of her unpacking and squinted at the animals.

“Think they have a hierarchy? You know, I mean, which of those two is more territorial?”

“Don’t know,” Hal said. “Never thought about it before. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the rabbits are king and could move the squirrels out anytime they’d like. They’re bigger and more aggressive.”

“Mebbe. I think it’s gotta be the squirrels,” said Rosie. “They can climb trees, and toss down nuts and such.”

“Rosie, squirrels don’t lob nuts or anything else from trees. That’s ridicu…”

Before he could finish, a red-tailed hawk swooped down and nabbed a squirrel in her claws and flew off.

“Wow. Um. I guess that answers that question,” Rosie said. “That was cool, I think.”

“Well, not if you’re the squirrel.”

Even before ‘squirrel’ was out of his mouth, a bald eagle targeted a small rabbit, grabbed it in its talons and flew across the water, and then out of sight.

“Wow again,” Hal said. “Twice in a minute. Interesting. But it still doesn’t answer the original question.”

“But it does bring up a new one. Who wins for territory, the hawk or the eagle?”

“I dunno,” said Hal. “The area’s big enough for both of them probably. All this hunting and gathering has made me hungry for that chicken you just pulled out of the basket.”

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