Chapter TwoDeath in the animal kingdom has a certain symmetry and beauty. It is a matter of survival. There are foragers, scavengers and predators. There are hunters and the hunted. There are survivors and victims. It is a simple matter of energy. Conserving, hoarding, using and obtaining this precious force are matters of life and death. Killing and eating is just a means of obtaining that life-sustaining energy. Generally, animals do not kill for pleasure, greed, revenge or satisfaction. They do not waste precious reserves on such human emotions. They kill to eat. Animals are amoral creatures with no sense of guilt; only an instinct for survival. This is the way it was on the mountain. Peter accepted the routine deaths he saw as natural selection and the survival of the fittest. He could
