Let’s all just pause a moment to give thanks that Mother Nature is merely the metaphorical personification of the general entirety of all processes that make up evolution’s natural order, as opposed to an actual all-powerful being.
Seriously. Be grateful. If there were an actual entity to whom humanity would eventually answer collectively for our f***ery with her blueprint, she likely wouldn’t find this Reddit shoop riffed by Mashable nearly as amusing as we do. Remember when your actual mother would ninja-whack you upside the head if you kept touching everything in sight while walking through the grocery store? That’s a big woman with a big hand, and we keep trying to knock an entire pyramid of peaches in heavy syrup.
Let’s start with a brief biology refresher. For the most part, “prey” animals have eyes positioned toward the sides of their heads. That creates a wider field of view allowing them to more quickly detect predators and avoid being eaten. Meanwhile, predators gain enhanced depth perception from forward-facing eyes, an advantage of binocular or stereoscopic vision designed for stalking and pursuing prey. Of course, there are a few exceptions here and there; given the rest of their physiology and the realities of stalking prey within a 360-degree sphere of potential movement, aquatic predators generally have side-facing eyes.
However, that’s generally the natural order: prey get a buff to perception while predators’ ranks go into accuracy.
So, what happens when animals nature thought out with one role in mind suddenly undergo a counter-productive makeover? Well, animals such as chickens, dolphins, and pigeons take on this oddly adorable beady-eyed cartoonishness. Sharks are suddenly magnitudes less terrifying. Rabbits appear to have amusingly oversized foreheads. Oh, and deer and goats suddenly become somewhat creepy.
Source – Mashable
