As any Texan with a pickup truck can tell you, a straight leap into the air is the first - and often last - reaction of a frightened armadillo.
"Their shell is designed to protect them from predators - not metal," said Kelly Edmiston, of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, explaining why flattened carcasses of the odd-looking beasts are so common on Texas roadways. "The shells are more like a fingernail. It's not an actual shell like on a turtle."
Now in northeast Kansas, beyond the creatures' normal range, armadillos are giving new meaning to the phrase "fresh roadkill."
A flattened armadillo was recently turning heads on U.S. Highway 24 near the Lawrence airport, north of the Kansas River.
"I had about 10 people stop by (Tuesday) and say something about it," said Mike Garrett, owner of Garrett's Garden Patch, about a mile east of the entrance to Lawrence Municipal Airport, where the dead animal could be seen.
There is the rare reported sighting of live armadillos in northeast Kansas, but even dead ones can create a stir in this neck of the woods.
"It's not real common for them to be seen this far north, but we do get an occasional report every now and then," said Kevin DeFisher, a natural resources officer based in Atchison with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. "There are probably more than we realize, but they are not here in any large numbers yet."
DeFisher said an armadillo sighting was reported near Atchison about a year ago.
Armadillo facts
¢ They are related to sloths and anteaters.
¢ Armadillos are between 24 inches and 32 inches in length.
¢ They eat bugs, eggs, birds and small mammals. They also will eat fruits and vegetation.
¢ They live up to 16 years but the average in the wild is 6 or 7 years.
¢ Armadillos can hold their breath for up to six minutes; useful for keeping dust out of their lungs when digging long burrows, which can be more than 20 feet long and 6 to 12 feet deep; or when crossing shallow bodies of water, which they will walk or run across the bottom of due to their high specific gravity compared to water.
¢ If an armadillo needs to cross deeper, wider stretches of water, it can actually swallow air into its digestive tract and swim at the surface, like a dog.
¢ Using their long, sticky tongues, armadillos can eat more than 40,000 ants at one feeding.
Armadillos have been making a slow migration north through Kansas for several years, he said. And over the past 10 years the mammal also has become almost common in southern Kansas.
Perhaps thanks to recent mild winters, the animals are now rearing their pointy heads in northeast Kansas.
Norm Slade, curator of mammals at Kansas University's Museum of Natural History, said he thought it was only in the past five years that armadillos started appearing in this area. He said he was not surprised the remains of one were found north of Lawrence.
"They have an affinity for sandy soils, and up there would be perfect for them," he said, referring to the Kansas River bottom land. "They are very good diggers."
Edmiston said he's heard the armadillos are migrating north, but is not concerned. Texas, which has declared them the state's official small mammal, still has plenty of them.
"I've not heard any plans by the state legislature to change that," Edmiston said.
DeFisher suggested that anyone who comes across an armadillo in Kansas leave it alone. The animal likely won't bite, but its claws could be dangerous.
He also predicted the animals won't thrive here unless Kansas winters get warmer.
"It's still not their type of habitat," he said. "It will be the cold weather that does them in."
Bill Wood, agricultural extension agent with the Douglas County Extension Service, has his own theory about the armadillo extending its range this far north. And if this weren't Kansas, one might describe his theory as leaning toward an evolutionary explanation.
"I think the mild winters we've had have something to do with it," Wood said. "But I think some of them (armadillos) are getting a little tougher."
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fairylight (anonymous) says…
saw one at Beto Junction this summer. Dead as a doornail.
kshaff03 (anonymous) says…
They aren't actually armadillos, they are mutant rolly pollies!
forumjunkie (anonymous) says…
Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. They are perfect quadruplets, the fertilized cell split into quarters, resulting in four identical armadillos.
Armadillos are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.
Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day (just like me).
Armadillos can walk underwater.
Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
If disconnected, the sex organs of an armadillo are still active.
Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by the wheels.
When an armadillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
Armadillos can be housebroken.
Armadillos have a very low need of oxygen. Even when burrowing they can stop breathing for 6 minutes by storing air in the trachea and wide bronchus.
The regulation of the body temperature of about 32°C is a big problem. Armadillos don't survive long periods of frost, except the fairy armadillo that lives in Patagonia and hibernates.
The three-banded armadillo hardly digs a burrow; it protects itself by rolling up like a hedgehog. The only opening is covered by the shields of the head and the tail, so that even a dog can't open this ball. As the body fat would disturb while rolling up, the fat moved to the dorsal part of the animal during evolution.
No armadillos have ever been reported to have been abducted by aliens.
The name "Armadillo" comes from the Spanish explorers word meaning "Little Armored Thing"
There are over 50 million armadillos in the US
http://1.myfreebulletinboard.com/kans...
forumjunkie (anonymous) says…
Now that I didn't know! Thank you. I am rather fond of armadillo's. I once had a flower pot made from a armadillo remains. IT was , at best, a conversation piece.
fairylight (anonymous) says…
Wouldn't that be a hoot to see!
When I lived in Texas Armadillo Roasts were popular. I never could get myself to indulge, I hear it tastes like pork.
I did know they could walk under the water as I lived next to a canal they loved to patronize.
stops4armadillos (anonymous) says…
About 3 a.m. on July 12th, on the way to Topeka to give birth to my baby girl, my labor coach and I had an armadillo cross the street in front of our car (taking the detour off 23rd...by Aberdeen Apts.). We both thought it was a possum at first, but we came to a complete stop and it stayed in our headlights. In unison, we exclaimed, "That's an armadillo!" We were sure it was some mystical omen from beyond regarding the impending delivery!
fairylight (anonymous) says…
And never a camera when you want one!
How funny.