What is mother nature trying to say?

There have been so many quotes about 'Mother Nature being the best teacher' and 'Nature teaches us what our mothers do not'. I believed that because I love Nature. But after seeing what I describe below, the belief has grown staunch.

I was once watching a program on one of these channels - Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat Geo. I don't remember exactly which one that was. Thanks to my brother and the camera woman, I happened to witness one of the Nature's miracles.

The program was about a lioness, taken deep in jungles of Africa. A pride of lions seems to have hunted a group of antelopes and managed to make a kill on a mother antelope. For whatever reason, a lioness in that pride seems to have taken heart on an antelope calf. She had adopted the calf and took great care of it. She never let the calf out of her eye sight for the fear of getting killed by the rest of the pride, the same way she would have behaved if it was her own cub. What's more she did not make a single kill the entire duration she was with the calf (which was about 13 days). Little by little the calf got rid of the fear of the lioness. But both the calf and lioness were growing weak - for the want of food. The lioness didn't hunt; the calf being too young was not able to feed on grass, and whining for the mother's feed. The calf was even shown to approach the lioness for milk. The efforts of the villagers and the channel staff by making the lioness eat by throwing meat, went down the drain. Both the animals survive on water for the entire duration. Finally, the calf passes away. The lioness reacts exactly the same to this, as she would have done for her own cub. The next day, she makes a meagre hunt for her survival. The episode ends with the note that the lioness goes on to adopt six other calfs during her life time.

If I had not seen the program myself and if someone had told this, I would not have believed. I mean, how can a prey and a predator live in harmony? And why should a predator wane and languish for a prey? Why would a lioness get estranged from her own pride for an antelope? Lions are social animals, to them, their pride is everything.

There are at least two ways to look at this.

* That the lioness should not have tried to do what it did, departing from its nature. By doing so, the calf had a prolonged suffering.
* That it is perfectly possible for two individuals in stark contrast to co-exist in perfect harmony as long as the hearts are brimming with love and care. What could be more contrasting than a prey and a predator.

I am bound to go with the second, because I trust that it is what Mother Nature is trying to tell us to the people of today's world - a world that is always in a frantic hurry, a world that is in a constant want of compassion. If a prey and predator can co-exist, why can't we humans co-exist with one another? Why can't we make this earth a more peaceful place to live in?