Flickr Lounge: vertical

This is a photo I have wanted a long time. Squirrels don't like being on the same side of a tree as a human, and will generally scurry to the side of the tree or the other side if you are directly across from them. This is a local fox squirrel and probably knows me. Even so it seemed a bit ill at ease, and I was closer than I thought it would allow, but it let me get the shot.

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Few creatures can look so sweetly innocent as the bloodthirsty mantis.

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I suspected that if I focused at this spot while the young rabbit wasn't looking at me, it would eventually turn its head toward me and eat the vegetation between itself and the camera. My hunches on animal behavior don't always come true, but they're a good starting point, and decades of observing animals gives me a good possibility of being right. This time I was right.

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It was walking toward me (it's one of three siblings), so I knelt to get an eye-level shot. A family of humans was watching me, and the mother said, "Look, that one is going close to the lady!" I said, "They're actually closer to people than they should be." I assume their mother was in the foliage somewhere, but it did occur to me something might have happened to her and her juveniles were out on their own. They were hunting pretty seriously, though I don't know if they were finding much in the way of food.

My eighth species of mammal to hit Explore, and a lifelong favorite animal. Thank you for your views, faves, and comments!

Tags:   raccoon Procyon lotor mammal baby animal baby raccoon animals of Indiana Spring Mill State Park

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