Mantis living on Renai Circle

On Saturday I posted this pic on my twitpics account:

There’s a bit of a story behind this. For those not familiar with Taipei, Renai Circle at Renai Road and Dunhua South Road is one of the largest roundabout intersections in Taipei (if not the biggest). Emily has a weekly class near there where she plays different games intended to develop problem solving skills. A week prior to this picture being taken, while walking to her class we saw a mantis sitting on a window of a building located on the circle. I didn’t think to take a picture of it at that time. The following week as we were walking to her class I jokingly said to Emily we should look for the mantis again. I didn’t actually think we would actually see him though. But sure enough, there he was, sitting on top of a bush and nibbling away at some leaves. He even turned his head to look at us. So, in the middle of a busy city at a busy intersection, there’s a 4 inch long mantis happily living in a bush.