Our Friend the Armadillo

The Amazing Armadillo - By Betty Salter

It leaps. It swims and even walks underwater all while wearing armor on its head, back and tail. What is it? It is Dasypus Novemcinctus, better known as the much-maligned armadillo. Spanish explorers who encountered it called it “little armored one.” It is the only mammal that wears a bony coat of armor. It is also the only mammal to give birth to four identical pups. Can you name the most common victims of highway mortality? Some folks refer to them as the Hillbilly Speedbump; it is, of course, the armadillo. They forage along roadsides and being nearly blind they don’t see the vehicle coming. When the vehicle gets close the armadillo is startled and leaps as much as four feet upward and into the passing vehicles. At Fort Benning, GA, when my son registered his motorcycle on base, he was warned of the dangers of armadillos on the country roads. Imagine traveling at 35+ miles per hour and you get hit in the head or chest with a football.... with a bone shell. One of the reasons I love armadillos is because they are such effi cient natural exterminators. I watched one clean out a fi re ant nest. It had its head in the ant nest as its long sticky tongue kept darting out and retracting with ants and larvae on it. The fi re ants were crawling all over the armadillo, but it just kept eating with no reaction to the ones trying to defend the nest. They also eat other things we don’t want in our lawns, like grubs, grasshoppers, armyworms, cockroaches, fl ies, beetles and wasps. In fact, they have even been known to clean out an entire yellow-jacket nest. The shallow holes they create while foraging are easily repaired by shoving the soil and grass back in place. Like many nocturnal mammals they may be seen during the day foraging. This does not mean they are sick or are carrying some disease. Most mammals will do this when they have young depending on them. How did that amazing creature with its little legs make its way here? Some adventurous nine-banded armadillos left the 20 other species of armadillo back in Latin America, to make their way into Texas around the 1850s. In 1922 Gus Edwards brought a pair of armadillos from Texas to the little zoo he had created the year before on Highland Street in Cocoa. He put them in an outdoor enclosure. One night shortly after their arrival they dug their way out and disappeared.

In June 1930 the Titusville Star Advocate reported armadillos being run over on Cheney Highway. By 1960 the armadillo population in Texas had expanded enough to blend with Florida’s population that had expanded to the panhandle. Leprosy is not common but can be found in some armadillos. They were given leprosy by people and sometimes people get leprosy from them, but that is rare in Florida since most Floridians do not eat or handle armadillos. One survey showed that about 20% of the armadillos along the Gulf Coast carried the bacteria that causes leprosy.

In addition to eating fi re ants, they also eat other things we don’t want in our lawns, like grubs, grasshoppers, armyworms, cockroaches, fl ies, beetles and wasps. Armadillos are our friend!

Betty Salter is a Naturalist and Trail Master at The Great Outdoors. She is a butterfl y enthusiast who enjoys hiking, birding and working with all the animals in our resort. Betty is also very active with our local Firewise program.