It is just one of the great mysteries of life. Smaller animals make more noise. I don’t think there is a good explanation, it just happens.
Yesterday, since it wasn’t raining and we had spent the previous day doing inside things because it was raining, the dog and I decided it was a good day for a walk. So we headed out to one of our favourite spots for a little stroll in the woods.
The first thing we saw was two deer, who immediately took off into the woods. Although the mere sight of them is a bit unusual this time of year. I have become convinced deer all have calendars. Of maybe they have smartphones with important dates outlined. Like maybe “hunting season – run and hide” pops up for them. Or perhaps, “it’s the fourth Sunday. You’re safe.” Because they did seem to feel pretty good about wandering out in front of people yesterday. But they weren’t there long.
So the dog and I continued on. We got to one spot in a lovely little hemlock grove. The dog was extremely interested in something she could smell on the ground in one area. In fact, she seemed pretty fixated. I continued past her, looked up, and there are more deer. Three more deer. Just ahead of us, in the middle of the trail.
I slowly reached for my phone top take a picture, but they weren’t waiting around. They took off, running at a pretty good clip. But yet they seemed to float over the ground. In spite of the fact the ground is covered with leaves, there was hardly a sound as the deer ran away.
In fact, the dog never noticed. She was still to busy sniffing around, trying to figure out what might have passed along the trail, and hadn’t even bothered looking up to actually see what was standing there. She still hasn’t seen the deer. And she didn’t hear them.
A short time later as we were sitting enjoying a cup of tea and a cookie, we both heard a great deal of crashing coming our way. Based on the lack of noise the deer made running away, I was expecting a herd of elephants. Maybe a stampede of bison. Nope. It was a squirrel.
So a fairly large animal makes almost no noise in the woods, but a small animal crashes around like crazy. I don’t really get it. Although I was happy it wasn’t a buffalo stampede. That might leave a mark. A squirrel, not so much.
But I still can’t figure out why the small animal makes so much more noise running around the woods. Maybe they’re trying to scare away everything else by sounding big.
It seems the bigger the animal the less noise they make. Which makes me happy T-Rex is extinct. They could probably sneak right up on you.