It's Just the Circle of Life

While we were at the Aquarium at the Bay on Pier 39 in San Francisco, I overheard a conversation that I found interesting and a little humorous. I thought that I should share it.

As soon as we gave the attendant our tickets, we turned the corner and there were several exhibits to view before heading to the the under-water tunnels. One of those exhibits was a video about sharks similar to the video shown above. The video had a warning that it was violent. It quickly became apparent as the killer shark created a bloody mess by attacking a seal. The interesting part came from a mother and daughter also viewing the video. Here's how their conversation went:

Daughter: Did that shark just eat a seal?!

Mother: It wasn't a seal. It's not real.

Another Viewer: Yeah, the shark just ate a seal.

Mother: Okay, it was a seal and it's real but it's the circle of life. See even the birds are doing it (eating the left over seal.)

Somehow I don't find it more comforting to know that even the seagulls feed on seals. I don't know what the mother was trying to accomplish but I'm afraid that she probably only further traumatized her daughter. Now her daughter knows that her mother will easily lie about things that don't really matter. But more scary than that, I fear that she might have nightmares of being attacked not only by sharks but also by seagulls. Eeek! But hey if she got attacked wouldn't it really just be "the circle of life?"