| Author |
Wildlife Encounters:  armadillos  |
|
|
Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 21 2007 : 07:43:36 AM
|
Armadillos are everywhere here in northern Arkansas. I was fascinated by them as a kid (ranking them somewhere close to the platypus in mystery), but now they've become pretty mundane since I see them all the time (mostly mashed in the road). But, my mom is moving down here soon & was curious about them, so she looked up some interesting facts that I didn't know about 'dillos...
Armadillo, meaning "little armored one," was the name the Spanish gave shell-wearing mammals they encountered in the New World. Armadillos exist only in the Americas, with South America home to all 20 species. Two of those, the nine-banded and the northern naked-tail armadillo, also live in Central America and Mexico.
Only the nine-banded migrated into this country. First recorded in Texas in 1849, it expanded its range north and east, at times aided by pranksters and animal dealers. In Florida, releases from a zoo in 1924 and a circus truck in 1936 started another migrating population. Now the northern edge of armadillo territory runs through Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Though this expansion has taken almost 150 years, that's fast for a mammal.
It can smell beetles, larvae and ants six inches underground, and it spends its waking hours eating them. It digs, pushes its nose into loosened soil, shoots out its sticky tongue to collect a meal and immediately digs another hole. Since its tongue is not selective, the feast includes an occasional earthworm, snake or skink, as well as rocks and earth. The armadillo's scat, understandably, resembles clay marbles.
A similar but larger - 130 lb - armadillo lived in what is now Missouri during the Pleistocene (a geologic epoch).
When seriously alarmed, they jump across the ground instead of running.
The armor is the intricately decorated skin of its head, back, sides and tail. Shoulder and haunch sections display a repeated small pattern, exquisitely detailed, and each band exhibits two rows of interlocking triangles. Younger adults are tan-gray with pink highlights; the oldest are gray.
By swallowing air to inflate its stomach and intestines, it becomes buoyant and paddles on the surface. Or it sinks to the bottom and strolls across, postponing its next breath until it reaches the other side. Observers have reported underwater trips lasting six minutes.
The female releases only one ovum per year, but the embryo buds twice, producing genetically identical quadruplets, all males or all females, born with carapaces like soft pink leather. Even more remarkable are the variable delays in pregnancies. After summer mating, implantation of the embryo in the uterine wall normally is delayed about 14 weeks. Gestation then takes four months, and pups are born in the spring. But implantation may be put off as long as 2 years, apparently when the female's environment isn't favorable for pups.
A small percentage carry leprosy, likely linked to laboratory studies.
Source: http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/1997/03/30.htm
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
|
|
|
marybeth
outstepping
146 Posts
Marybeth
Washington
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Aug 22 2007 : 9:55:17 PM
|
Very interesting. I have never seen an armadillo. MB
Being outside is being |
 |
|
|
Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Nov 25 2007 : 5:46:38 PM
|
My dogs almost got one tonight - an armadillo, that is. I went out after dark to lock my chickens up in the barn, and the dogs took off after the poor guy. It came racing right at me & the girls, nearly knocking us off our feet, and all the while I was screaming at the dogs like a mad ring leader. The armadillo ducked into a shallow hole, so its butt & tail were still sticking out. The girls and I took a closer peek, then we backed off so it could wriggle out and scuttle away. Funny creatures!
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
|
|
|
|
Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Nov 25 2007 : 7:34:27 PM
|
Wow! I find it amazing that they can keep fertilized eggs viable for that long!
Elizaray |
|
|
| |
Wildlife Encounters: armadillos |
|
|
|
armadillos
