“Attached as they are to daily and seasonal realities, most animals are constantly hyper-aware, (remaining) both sensitive and curious about ˚everything˚ in their environment.

For this reason, it is considerably difficult for a predator to advance within killing range of its prey without either using special technologies (silent feathers, camouflage, etc.) or targeting a particular weakness (the tendency not to look straight up, rate of speed, fatigue, etc.).

Faced with the shield of hyper-awareness most animals habitually raise, predators far more often have to feed off helpless babies, or prey that are distracted by injury, illness, starvation, and the like.

This alone constitutes a valuable lesson: desperation equates with vulnerability for those who deem the service of immediate desires to be more important than maintaining appropriate minimal levels of sensitivity, curiosity, and caution.

In my estimation, no matter what physical powers of evasion one might possess, hyper-awareness is the survivor’s greatest tool. It is possible for an animal to sustain considerable injury, and yet continue to stay alive in the presence of predators, so long as that awareness is maintained, and threats are accurately assessed and responded to. “

— Ryan HeavyHead