On one of my recent trips to Watermelon Pond a pretty little nine banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) found me. I was hiking through the woods towards the water when it happened along. I say it found me because it came out of some heavy underbrush into the more open area where I was walking. It looked around, never saw me, and began to follow its nose around in search for some tasty bugs. It walked from place to place in a meandering kind of pattern always getting closer and closer to me. I had the telephoto lens on my Cannon camera and it was so close, I couldn’t focus, so I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and started shooting photos. I kept expecting it to notice me and turn and run, but it didn’t. It came within about four feet of me at one point, nose to the ground and totally concentrating. It even stopped several times to finish off some tidbit that it had found. It walked right by me and never realized that I was even there. I thought about following it, but decided to let it continue on its journey none the wiser.

Armadillos are known for having very keen noses that can easily find an insect or grub in six to eight inches of soil. They are also tremendous diggers, and can dig those insects up within seconds, but their eyesight is extremely poor. This is not the first time I’ve encountered an armadillo in the woods and it hasn’t noticed me. I was surprised, though, that when it got so close, it didn’t smell me. I was shooting images madly, expecting it to bolt at any minute. I always enjoy having a close encounter like this with wildlife. I especially liked that I never bothered it at all, and still managed to get some decent photos. To me that’s an ideal wildlife encounter.