My biology teacher used to boast how he was a biologist, not a teacher.

This basically meant he didn't have a teaching certificate/degree, just a biology degree which he chose to grace our little brains with each week.

If you took his advanced Anatomy class in junior year, your main project would be disecting a frog. Nobody wanted to disect a frog, so only the students who really wanted to continue in the sciences ever took that class. However the shared lab room would still reek of formaldehyde every day.

Our biology teacher had a soft spot for wolves. His classroom had several posters, many advertising non profit organizations and conservation societies that focused on keeping wild wolves and their territories alive. Given he was a large, bushy-bearded fellow many kids chalked this up to some macho, "lone wolf" mentality that many people romanticize. However one day, some poor dumb teenager made the mistake of saying that out loud.

"Wolves aren't 'lone' anything," he quickly corrected them. "They hunt in packs. That's how they survive. If a wolf loses its pack, it's often a death sentence for them."

"So they just gang up on their prey like bullies?" Let it never be said that idiocy keeps quiet.

"What, you feel bad for their prey?" The planned lecture died now. The tangent was taken.

"Have you ever been kicked by a deer? Anyone?" Our teacher glared us down from behind grey whiskers.

"Deer kicks are lethal. If a deer kicks you, and hits the right spot, it will not only break your limbs it can crack your skull or cause internal damages you won't heal from. Male deer antlers can also cause major damage." He proceeded to go on a tirade about the mechanics of powerful leg muscles in herbivores, pointing out how they achieved optimal survival by evolving as strong defense tanks.

"Now, imagine the only way you can live is to eat one of those. Take it out, without dying. And imagine you're smaller - nowhere near the same size or height. And while this deer can eat lots of easy to reach foliage and get its calorie requirements for the day, your wolf gut might be running on say half a tank or less - and if you don't succeed, you die. Does that sound like the bully now? Wolves don't take out whole herds of deer. They have to cooperate to take out one at a time." He shook his head again. "Humans are the only ones who hunt more than they need to survive."

"Don't push your human characteristics on natural animals. They've evolved to fill a set niche, and that niche isn't always the easiest one to fill."

I don't remember the actual lesson for that day, but this one stuck with me for the rest of my life.

His father always told him that he'd rather be the hunter than the prey. Jack wasn't so sure anymore. He didn't have the heart to kill the bunny, but he did it to impress his dad. At least the bunny died peacefully. Jack had to live knowing he killed a bunny. The prey had it easier even though it seemed the other way around.