Hungry Fox Grabs Baby Possum Right Off Mother Possum’s Back

Nature is ruthless. It's a tough world out there for smaller animals, who are often picked on - and eaten- by larger predators. A lot of their life is spent looking for food, but most of their existence is just trying to make sure they don't become food for something else. Unfortunately, sometimes it's a numbers game out in the wild. A herd of animals might practice utilitarianism, sacrificing one of their herd mates so that the greater good can get away. Another example is mothers raising their offspring. Though they might wish to keep all of their babies healthy, sometimes they have to make a tough decision, especially if one of the younglings is slowing down or endangering the group. That's on full display in this video, though it doesn't seem like the mother possum in this footage tries all that hard to save one of the babies clinging to her back. Young possums initially travel around in their mother's pouch. Once they get too big to do so, they opt to hitch rides on the back of their mom. The possum mom's will basically drag their children around for four months or so, until the babies are ready to tackle life out on their own. It's a pretty easy life for young possums as they get to ride around, but there is one concerning downside to it all. When they latch onto their mother's back, they're pretty much exposed to the elements. As you probably know, possums aren't breaking the land speed record anytime soon, so if a predator wants an easy snack, it's not a problem for them to challenge a possum and her babies. In this clip, a fox runs up to the mother possum, who freezes out of fear (and possibly to limit the loss). Once it comes to a stop, the orange fox snatches one of the babies right off her back and makes a meal out of it. Almost as soon as the fox picks up the baby, the mother possum keeps moving right along. In her mind, she only lost one, and that's pretty good when you run the numbers out in nature. Take a look: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7knH7loO2i/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link That's rather commonplace, I know, but it's still brutal to watch. One of those baby possums drew the short stick and became a snack, and social media users were shocked at how nonchalantly it all went down: "Survival in the wild... sacrificing one to save many." "Mom was like 'here bruh damn take one.'" "That fox could have taken her down and all the babies. She made a business decision." "She ain’t even spin the block for little one." "Mom just walked away like it’s a regular Tuesday." And I have to also include a comment that made me shamefully chuckle. If there was an award for "comment of the post," I'd feel comfortable crowning this one: "Meals on wheels." Dammit... I shouldn't laugh at that, but that's pretty funny.