When A Body Meets A Body

I wish I'd gotten a better picture of this encounter, but I'll take what I can get. While walking down a path at Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland, I spotted a raccoon up ahead. He crossed the path and disappeared. Couple minutes later I hear the unmistakable shuffle of an armadillo in the weeds, and soon I spot him. But I wasn't the only one who spotted him. The raccoon popped his head out of wherever he was hiding and started watching the armadillo as well. I'd hoped the encounter would last a little longer, or that the two would get closer and perhaps there would be some sort of altercation, but it wasn't meant to be. Having satisfied his curiosity, the raccoon disappeared again and the armadillo went on his merry and somewhat oblivious way, probably never having noticed either myself or the raccoon.

What's An Armoured Dillo?

If you live in Florida for very long (and probably most of the Souther US as well), you'll see one of these guys. But you probably won't see him moving around and being very active. You'll see him flattened on the side of the road after being hit by a car. This is an armadillo, one of the more common critters in the woods and fields around here. I've tried to shoot them before, but they will usually run away or hide as soon as they realize I'm carrying a camera. This guy was probably a little used to people, so he didn't shy away too quickly. He certainly didn't stop his constant search for food, so that's why you don't see the tip of his nose and his head is always slightly out of focus. That's because he's digging and moving constantly.

If you aren't familiar with these guys, they really are armored. That shell is a bunch of hard plates, sort of like an extra-thick fingernail, and it provides a lot of protection from a wide variety of predators. It takes a lot of muscle or teeth to get down to the edible parts. Now if a predator can get to the soft underbelly, then all bets are off.  But they can roll into a pretty tight ball to prevent just that sort of thing from happening.  But when it comes to cars, they have absolutely no protection against that.

There he is again, nose buried in the dirt.

I just thought there was something cool about this shot of the armadillo's butt. Where else on the web are you going to see great photography like this?