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.

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.”