SURVIVAL OF THE SMARTEST
Roger Anderson got out of bed, put on his suit, got in his car, and drove to work. On the way to work, his car had a flat tire near the forest. When he got out of his car to fix the tire, a tiger suddenly came out of the forest. The tiger was going to eat Mr. Anderson, but the human got down on his knees and begged, “Please tiger, don’t eat me. I never did anything to hurt you.”

“Maybe you never did anything to hurt me,” replied the tiger, ‘but other humans have done many bad things to me and the other tigers and animals. You cut down our forest, lock us up in zoos, and you hunt us for our skin. Yesterday, some men from the zoo locked me in a cage. This morning I escaped.”

“No, we people are not so bad,” argued Mr. Anderson. “Let’s ask four other animals if they it is fair for you to eat me.” The tiger agreed. The first animal to come along was a horse. “Friend horse,” called the tiger, “people locked me up in a cage. Now, do you think it is right for me to eat this human?”

“Yes, I do,” said the horse. “These humans treat us horses very badly. They put fences around us so that we cannot go where we want, and they make us carry them and their things. But do you ever see people carrying us?” “Well,” said the tiger, “that’s one animal that thinks I should eat you.”

The man shook his head. “We humans ride horses because we are smarter than them. Maybe the next animal will understand that.”

Soon, a chicken came walking through the forest. “Friend chicken,” shouted the tiger, “people locked me up in a cage. Now, do you think it is right for me to eat this human?”

“I certainly do,” answered the chicken. “Those people take away our eggs for food, and they even kill us so that they can eat us. Do you ever see us eating people? Have a nice breakfast.”

The man shook his head again. “We humans eat chickens because we are smarter than them. Maybe the next animal will understand that.”

They waited about ten minutes. The tiger was getting hungrier and hungrier, and the human was getting more and more worried. Then, coming along is a turtle.

“Friend turtle” called the tiger, “people locked me in a cage. Now, do you think it is right for me to eat this human?”

The turtle scratched his head and said, “I’ve been alive for a long time. I’ve seen humans make the water we turtles live in dirtier and dirtier with their pollution. Also they take small turtles as pets. Do you ever see us keeping people as pets? Yes, eat him. Do you want any salt?”

Mr. Anderson shook his head once more. “We human keep turtles as pets because we smarter than them. Maybe the next animal will understand that.”

The tiger smiled and said, “if only one more animal says yes, I’m going to eat you.”

Then Mr. Anderson saw a snake. That gave him an idea. “Snakes can’t hear well,” he said to the tiger with a big smile on his face. “We’ll have to go back to the cage and show him what happened.”

“Okay,” agreed the tiger, “but as soon as the snake says yes, I’m going to eat you. I haven’t had any breakfast yet, so let’s hurry.”

The man used his hands to signal to the snake to follow them. When they got to the cage, the tiger tried to signal with his paws to explain what happened, but the snake did not understand. “Why don’t you get in the cage,” Mr. Anderson suggested. “Then the snake will understand.” The tiger said that it hated cages but that it would go inside just for ten seconds.

As soon as the tiger got in the cage, the human locked the door, and the tiger couldn’t get out. “Ha, ha, ha” laughed Mr. Anderson, “I told you we humans are smarter.” Then he took out his portable telephone and called the people at the zoo. He told them that they should come and take the tiger away before it got out of the cage again.

“Goodbye,” he said to the tiger as he walked back to his car. “I’m sure you will have a comfortable life at the zoo.”

Mr. Anderson was so happy and proud of himself for tricking the tiger that he forgot all about the snake. When he accidentally stepped on the poisonous snake, it bit him. “Oww!” the human screamed, dropping the keys to the cage and running as fast as he could to his