Should humans learn from animals?

This is a story for children which tells about a bird perched on a branch.

It was knocking its beak against the tree branch to clean the food off its beak when it looked down and saw that an ant was drifting away on the fast-flowing river below the tree.

Swiftly the bird picked up a yellowish leaf and flew down to put the leaf on the water's surface near the drifting ant.

The ant was then able to climb on to its perahu and to safety.

As soon as the ant was safely on the leaf, the bird flapped its wings to fly back to the tree.

The flapping of its wings created a wind that sent the leaf drifting to the shore so that the ant could safely land on dry ground.

Suddenly a hunter arrived on the scene and turned his gun on the bird.

The bird didn't notice that it had become the hunter's target because it was dozing off in the sultry heat.

The bird was surprised when a gunshot broke the silence and the whizzing sound of a bullet passed only a few millimeters from its head.

It flew upwards while at the same time looking in the direction of the gunshot.

The bird's sharp eyes saw the ant biting the hunter's foot, interrupting his concentration so that he missed his target.

The other day, I met an old friend of mine. He told me that he was chairman of a philanthropic foundation, whose task is to help (finance) smart, but poor, students through higher education on one condition -- that the student in turn finances another smart, but poor student. In so doing the circulation of scholarships continues. There was a case, however, of a student finishing his medical studies and reneging on his promise to the foundation, he just sank into oblivion so to speak.

Compared to the story of the bird and the ant, the doctor's example shows that in some cases animals know what gratitude is, while humans do not!

A. DJUANA

Jakarta