Donnelly was one of our most active sites. Besides thousands of cricket frogs we saw quite a few different species there. I had seen a black racer, Coluber constrictor, and so I was snake hunting on the higher dry ground, which also kept me from being eaten alive by gnats. I heard movement nearby and saw this goofy thing run by. It's a Nine-banded armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus, and is just visible in the center of the picture (I know it's a crappy picture but I was running after this thing with a phone camera). These are the only armadillos that are local to South Carolina. Probably the best thing about it is how it runs. It's hard to describe, but it wasn't very fast and just kind of skips along. It didn't seem too concerned by my presence and would occasionally stop to catch food. It was about a foot and a half long and almost a foot tall. I'd never seen one and didn't really know we had them around here, so it was a comical experience chasing one.
-Hill Felton
Photographed at the Donnelly Site
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