They were kept in cages. Locked up, pacified, tried to make tame.
Their captors should have known their hearts were too wild.
They broke free, and they ran. The humans gave chase, of course.
They couldn’t let their prizes get away.
But though the humans had their cars and their bright lights, their binoculars and their tranquilisers, the wild ones knew this world better.
They could climb faster, move more silently, blend themselves into the foliage of the jungle.
Eventually the humans gave up, and the wild ones were at home. Soon, their months of captivity became nothing but a distant memory – and a story of warning they passed on to all the other animals.
Don’t let them catch you, they said. Keep your hearts wild. Keep yourselves free.