While I was hiking today (more on that in another post) I saw a lot more “wildlife” than previously.
There were lizards everywhere, and these two enormous bugs. (That’s a 58mm (2.3″) lens cap cover for size comparison.)
The mantis seems content to let me photograph him, although I think he may have been eyeing me to see if he could take a bite out of me.
The grasshopper didn’t let me get very close before he took off, but when he spread his wings and legs out, he was so impressive, I tried to get a shot of him in flight. He landed on the trail about 15 feet ahead of me, we I crept closer, camera on “sports” mode for rapid picture taking as he took off.
He wouldn’t take off, the camera just clicked away and he ignored me. Finally I tossed the lens cap at him while snapping photos. I got several great pictures of the lens cap in flight and the grasshopper completely ignoring it. A nearby lizard distracted my attention and he took off, never to be seen again.
At one point, an animal crossed the trail in front of me. It was about cat-sized, but dark and furry. It didn’t give me the impression of being a cat, and it was only 10 feet in front of me, but by the time I got to the place it crossed the trail it had gone to ground and I couldn’t see it again.
There are feral cats and dogs all over Taiwan, so I nearly had myself convinced it must have been a cat, but about 20 feet down the trail there was a newer section of cement. The cement was riddled with these footprints.
While I know these footprints couldn’t be the exact same animal I saw, the prints prove something lives in reasonable abundance in the area that it would walk all over wet cement. I don’t know what kind of animal it was, but this print is neither cat nor dog. It looks a bit racoonish to me, but I don’t think they have them in Taiwan.
Anyone know what it is?