A tale of curiosity bordering on fearlessness...
When one stares out of the kitchen window of
a morn, it is expected that you may spy a bird or two, an arboreal iguana
awaiting the rising sun to warm itself or an insect-hunting whiptail lizard foraging
amongst the grasses.
However, what we spied this particular morn was of a more curious and
unexpected nature; a four legged furry visitor with big brown eyes, slender
legs and radar like ears acutely tuned to the sounds of danger.
To anyone who has seen Disney’s Bambi,
the shape of a Red Brocket Deer will be more than familiar except that the
speckled pattern on the neck is replaced by a majestic brown with a reddish hue
which lightens as the fur progresses down to the under parts of the deer.
Creeping onto base from the coconut plantation
Looking for tasty leaves to eat
Deftly, our visitor picks its way
through the camp, stopping here and there to sniff a bush or tree and then
munch its way through a bunch of leaves if the said plant is of an appetising
enough flavour and moving on if not. Silent but not exactly stealthy, it seems
oblivious to the human inhabitants, so long as you don’t move or make noise; it
will even come within a few feet of you in its search for the tenderest and
most succulent plants to consume, seemingly oblivious to human presence.
And then, like an apparition, our sleek friend is gone, with a casual but
gymnastic hop through the barbed wire fence and off into the coconut plantation
beyond and back to the forest from whence it came...
- Sorrel, 6-month intern
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