A Soldier Weeps While Holding a Dead Baby in His Arms
An extraordinarily heartbreaking picture of an unknown soldier holding a dead baby close to his heart, emotionally overwrought. No… this is not an amazing nor beautiful picture… but then perhaps the truly beautiful, amazing, wondrous thing might be how this picture shows us another truth and reality that we might have missed while struggling through our daily routines.
This is a particular moving image depicting the devastating consequences of war. I do not have the details about this particular image, only that it caused great grief when i first saw it in an email. But then, any pictures of dead children are devastating in scope.
Evidently this soldier is deeply moved by the death of this little baby. He will never forget this little child and this moment will likely haunt him for the rest of his days. He seems to be a soldier of great love, caring and courage. Hopefully he will go on to find a truly hopeful and peaceful way to reconcile the things he has born witness to.
The baby is so completely innocent in all of this. One day laughing, smiling, patting little hands together, the next day terrified, killed, then held in a bloody blanket by a stranger. But the stranger weeps for him or her… as do we all.
If anyone has any details about this image, please let me know.
I was deeply touched by this video. My first thought was that Barb is a totally special individual with greater gifts of resolve, ability and courage. A beautiful individual.
But then I realized that she might say something like, “Not at all. If I can do it, anyone can…”
Well, we can all try, because seeing Barb do what she does can inspire us with the possibilities.
She just “never gave up.” It’s amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it.
Update: 1:22 PM 10/8/2009 – Little Elke, just about one of the cutest little monkeys you will EVER see, is thriving and beginning to explore the outside world. She has graduated from her nursery and has taken her first steps in her tropical rainforest exhibit at the Taronga Zoo.
Elke a four-day-old Francois Lemur Monkey – Very Rare
Estimated Less than 1000 left on Earth
Adorable Video with Sweet Musical Background : )
Con’d from above:
Louise her surrogate mother says that little Elke is “very inquisitive and loves to explore and is full of energy and very active.”
“During her outside forays she is accompanied by an ever watchful keeper as well as hot water bottles to keep her warm as the cooler weather approaches and like all newborns, her favourite teddy bear remains close by.
“She actually has quite a few ‘favourite’ soft toys, and can often been seen snuggling into them, leaping on them or using them as a launching pad to explore another area of the exhibit.”
Elke’s outside adventures take place when her Langur parents, first time mother ‘Saigon’ and father, ‘Hanoi’ who sadly rejected her at birth are inside their dens watching on. This allows Elke the opportunity to become familiar with their scent, taste the leaves that the adults also feast upon and become familiar with the area which will eventually be her fulltime home.
The infant’s birth was a delightful surprise for keepers who discovered the bright orange baby in her parents’ exhibit in early March. It is not uncommon for first time animal parents to reject their off-spring and with as few as 1000-5000 François Langur individuals left in the wild, Taronga’s expert keepers stepped in to hand-rear the infant.
“There really have been no difficulties with her, she has been a model child, although her human parents are a little worse for wear, we are very sleep and literally moved into the Zoo to bottle feed and tend to Elke’s every need,” said Louise.
“As she gets older, things are getting easier. Her last feed is now at 9:30pm, which is much more civilised; initially we were getting up every two hours! Now with a full set of teeth, she has started to test out solid food including olive, poplar and fig browse and tips the scales at 680 grams, an average weight for an infant François Langur,” said Louise.
Taronga’s primate keepers will carry on hand-rearing Elke for many months and continue the slow process of reintroducing her to her parents. These remarkable dark-haired primates are quite unusual eating only certain variety of leaves. Francois Langurs inhabit tall riverside limestone crags in tropical monsoon forests.
~~~
Previously Posted:
Cutest little monkey you’ve EVER seen – this tiny little Francois lemur baby is extremely rare and endangered. She’s bright orange, looks like a super cute little Ewok, super bright eyed, curious and playful. Precious beyond words…
~~~
‘Elke’ the four-day-old hand raised Francois Leaf-Monkey is shown for the first time at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. The Leaf-Monkeys native habitat is Northeast Vietnam and Southeast China
Elke is a bright-eyed five-day-old monkey who needs to be hand raised by staff at Taronga Zoo because her mother is not sure what to make of her… but she will be re-introduced later to see if they can be reunited. Her mother is very young and inexperienced, without benefit of having other monkeys around to learn from.
Born last Thursday, this wee little palm-sized francois langur monkey is making do with a warm quilt in place of her mum’s belly and chest, which she would otherwise be in constant contact with, primate keeper Mandy McLellan told AAP.
So far the bright orange leaf-eating monkey is doing well.
and…
Cutest Little Baby Orangutan Pictures
Very precious pics, will warm your heart! : )
How adorable is that? – A dear friend sent me these… am posting because the pictures are so precious, human and sweet orangutangs (and animals in general) can be so similar. The photographer should be lauded for such an amazing job at capturing the pure innocence of these incredibly cute babies. Thank you, dear photographer, thank you for sharing.
“These 3 month old little Orangutans are at the ICU (Infant Care Unit) at the Bukit Merah Orang Utan island. Tucked away on the 35-acre Pulau Orang Utan, Orang Utan Island is the world’s first and only 5-acre rehabilitation and preservation facility where Orang Utans roam free. The unique island serves as a breeding sanctuary as well as conservation, research and education center to better understand this endangered species.”
“Aurora, a 20-year-old Beluga whale, swims with her calf after giving birth at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C., Canada on Sunday June 7, 2009.” Baluga Cam HERE (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
Video of Baby Aurora’s Birth
Little Aurora nurses from her mother Qila
The Baluga cam shows Aurora and her baby swimming around their enclosure. Wonderful! : )
A little infant macaque is “taken under the wing” by a white pigeon
on China’s Neilingding Island in Guangdong Province.
Evidently, this little 12 week old baby monkey was separated from its
mother and faced certain death until rescued by a refuge worker.
The story is that the baby was inconsolable until he was befriended
and nurtured by the white pigeon, another resident of the shelter.
It seems the pigeon understood the baby needed him or her.
They have become inseparable friends. The image was shot by
Jianbin Huo of China, a photojournalist. Hopefully, the two will be
allowed to spend as much time as possible together.
Macaque monkeys are very intelligent, sensitive and loving. They
hold lifetime memories of family and tribe. This little baby may
hold love and memories forever for his little friend.
This little duckling is sharing his breadcrumbs with the fish in their
little koi pond. What a guy. Well, we all knew that ducks are people,
too… Quite astounding, really.
The fish are Koi or Carp, also known as Niskiki Koi.
Some think the little duckling is merely trying to wet his food.
But, if you look carefully, you will see that he is definitely putting
the food into the water and letting go.
He continues to quickly put in more food for them. The fish do
seem quite happy and fat, don’t they? It’s the great care they get
from the little duck…
Ducks are quite amazing, actually. Having two as pets, I can
attest to the fact that they were funny, loving, loyal, very sweet
and extremely endearing.
They definitely had minds of their own, with very individualistic
personalities. I discovered that ducks can behave similarly to dogs.
Ducks will joyously greet you and cuddle in your lap. They will
protect you – running at intruders with wings outspread. They
will miss each other should one go away… in fact, they become
heartbroken.
When you think of the horrific conditions they live through while
being forcefed living in tiny confined boxes, it boggles the mind.
Just boggles.
A new article hasinformation that birds are much more intelligent
than originally thought:
Bird brain? Animal smarts surprise experts
Monkeys perform mental math, pigeons can select the picture
that doesn’t belong. Humans may not be the only animals that
plan for the future, say researchers reporting on the latest
studies of animal mental ability. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29169229/from/ET/
What can one say about this poignant, beautiful friendship
between a baby deer and kitten… precious and extraordinary.
Beautiful music by Louis Armstrong.
Whether this scene was staged or contrived, it nevertheless
shows how two such dissimilar creatures such as a little
household cat and young fawn can come together as
commen brethren.
A beautiful moment, beautiful song.
When some have said that animals do not have feelings,
they are very wrong… Animals do take great comfort in
each other experiencing strong feelings of love, devotion,
caring, sharing.
Oftentimes, for the rest of their lives.
Another unbelievable, incredible and wonderful video:
Unlike creatures such as a kitten or a deer are not unusual…
In Nature, animals are often known to care for, adopt or
associate with different species. Hippopotamuses have
been known to try and save the lives of injured gazelles.
You can also click here to see a very special loving
relationship between a baby hippo and a tortoise.
Thanks to BB and all the others who made these
videos.
A baby hippo, rescued from the sea in Kenya after losing its parents,
has adopted a giant tortoise as its ‘mother’. Yes, folks, tortoises and
hippos can love each other…
The animals share a compound in a sanctuary and have formed a
close bond….
