Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/10/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com>wrote: > That's an armadillo! > > Sonny, did Kitty-Bob pounce next? Do armadillo bite or attack normally? > (know nothing about them except some photos) > Armadillo are casually known as hardshell possum.? Closeup they resemble a cross between a possum and a rock, and they generally have mental candlepower somewhere between the two.? Now, given that a possum has been described by a zoologist I know as "not really bright enough to be a quadruped" (and in the next breath, "Possibly the stupidest multi-celled organism in existence"), well.... They are dangerous in only two possible ways:? 1. They've been reported as carriers of leprosy but I vaguely recall that the strain they get (the only animal other than man to do so) is not contagious to humans, and 2. They'll dig up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING and do enough damage to the ground that horses will break legs and gardening humans will shoot at them - and miss, resulting in flying lead at ground level,? which is inherently hazardous. It's a safe bet that this critter didn't even know kittybob was there; their sensory inputs and capacity for analysing them are somewhat ... limited.? They can't see more than an inch beyond their noses and their sense of smell is about the same range.? I've had them litterally trundle up to me, bounce off my boot, turn around, bounce off the OTHER boot, and then wander away none the wiser.? I'm told they're edible.? I'm fairly sure you'd have to be beyond starving. ? R. Clayton McKee PhotoJournalist from somewhere just south of somewhere else...