Dumb and Dumber ... In the Animal World, too!

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 400 millimeter focal length.

            As much as we admire wildlife for their ability to make a living in ways that make the human race seem fairly soft, we animal lovers must admit that there are some truly dumb critters out there.  This past month, I have witnessed first-hand two truly dumb ones.  It makes you believe that the only reason these species survive is due to the fact that they are such fecund breeders.

          I will begin with "Dumber," the Nine-Banded Armadillo.  Texans fondly refer to them as "Possum on the Half Shell" because, as many have said to me personally, the only ones they have seen were roadkill.   When I lived in Texas, the only ones I saw were on the half shell, too.  Some 18 years ago, upon moving back to Georgia from Italy, Carl and I began to see them regularly and could observe their behaviors.  They seemed oblivious to your presence unless you made a sudden move.  We wondered if they could hear.  We had learned that their eyesight was very poor.  But according to this Animals-Pawnation site, they have a keen sense of hearing which helps them to forage for insects.  You would think they would use that hearing to avoid oncoming traffic!  After all, cars make noise. 

        I spotted the specimen above when birding at Donnelly Wildlife Management area on February 15.  I noticed several more a week later when I was birding there.  In fact, Donnelly seems to be overrun with them.  Though they are primarily nocturnal, they apparently forage  in winter months  in the warm afternoons.  When spotted this guy, he was out in the middle of the lawn behind the lodge.  I determined his general direction and then set up my tripod to photograph and film him.  I was interested to see how close he might come to me.  The above picture is the first shot and the shadow is a shadow from a picnic table.  I never moved my tripod.  Each picture here is full framed on the height dimension so the series that follows will show how close he came.  I eventually had to pull in my zoom from the long 400 millimeter focal length to 190 millimeters.

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 400 millimeter focal length

          The shadow above shows the upper corner of the picnic table shadow.  I had expected that he might work his way through the shadow and that perhaps he would see me and run for cover by the time he came out of it.  He did indeed work his way through the shadow.  But when he came out the other side, he ran towards me for a moment instead.

Here he comes! -- "Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 400 millimeter focal length

          At this point, I decided to film him as he continued his slow zigzag approach.

        I had to stop filming though as the camera was unable to maintain focus as he approached me.  So, I continued with taking his picture.  With each successive frame, I had to reduce the focal length of my lens. 

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 260 millimeter focal length

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 210 millimeter focal length

 

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 190 millimeter focal length

Finally, he figured out that a potential threat was a mere 15 feet away and he ran for cover!

"Dumber" -- 9-Banded Armadillo at Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC -- February 15, 2014 -- Photo taken at a 190 millimeter focal length

        Amazing!  And funny!  Later, that afternoon in fading light, fellow birder Caroline Eastman and I were returning from the dike that runs across the impoundment behind the office.  She had seen my encounter with the armadillo above earlier and we were talking about it.  Next we heard a rustling in the underbrush and we anticipated that it was another one of these incredibly dumb (or oblivious) creatures.  Sure enough, an armadillo emerged from the underbrush and ambled right past Caroline within 6 inches of her feet!  When she turned, she startled him and he took off.  Crazy!  We had been talking the whole time as he approached.  He had not been bothered by our voices.  For a critter, that's not just dumb, that's "Dumber!" 

         Now, I come to the story of the critter that has earned the designation of "Dumb" for this blog post.  Knowing what we do about this species, "dumb" may not be the appropriate appelation.  We have in the past after all witnessed some rather clever behavior from this particular species.  From those observations, maybe "foolhardy" is a better word to describe the animal.  This species knows what it wants and has the audacity to go for it nearly every time.   Such seemed to be the case last Saturday, a week ago. 

          All during the week, Carl and I had noticed a young female Red-shouldered Hawk perched and hunting from the bluebird box in the churchyard across the street.  I never had an opportunity to see her actually successfully catch something.  But I did see a couple of attempts.  Well, while Carl and I were eating lunch, I looked out and saw her perched on a branch across the creek.  When I pointed her out to Carl, I noted she was next to a squirrel on the same branch.  Wait a second!  A squirrel on the same branch as a hawk!  What is wrong with this picture!?   Not only that, the squirrel seemed to want to move towards her.  Carl ran for his camera and captured the following shots!

"Dumb" the squirrel and a mystified Red-shouldered Hawk -- Parc Perlière -- March 1, 2014 -- Photo by Carl Miller

 The hawk seemed to be as dumbfounded as we by this squirrel's audacity.  "Really!  What are you thinking, squirrel?!"  was a sentiment that the three of us shared.  We had noticed that squirrels have been gathering leaves and building nests.  Perhaps, this squirrel saw some choice leaves on the other side of this hawk that were truly appealing.  We did see this squirrel begin to move down the branch 3 or 4 times inching in closer to the hawk.  As it approached, the hawk flexed her wings and rasped at the squirrel.  Apparently, she was not hungry though. Her craw did appear rather full!

"Dumb" with an unimpressed Red-shouldered Hawk on same branch -- Parc Perlière -- March 1, 2014 -- Photo by Carl Miller

The squirrel eventually came to its senses and ran down the tree in search of other leaves and the hawk flew off.  It was quite an amazing lunch time show for us though!

          Obviously, just as in humans, there are varying levels of "smarts" in animal species.  Some humans are smarter (or dumber) than others; some squirrels are smarter  (or dumber) than others and some armadillos are smarter (or dumber) than others.  There's is no shortage of squirrels in our yard -- in spite of the predators.  And there seems to be no shortage of armadillos in Donnelly WMA.  As they are such prolific breeders, then they certainly stand a chance in spite of other shortcomings.  In the end, we should expect the unexpected with such variation and we can continue to be awed by our observations of the natural world!