![]() The armadillo's body armor is flexible it covers all but the ears and the belly. The armadillos photographed on these pages were found out and about searching for food in midafternoon. ![]() They are nocturnal animals, most active in the evenings and at night, but they do make daytime forays. Cold weather, theoretically at least, limits how far north it can go, but they been spotted in Illinois and Nebraska, and some believe they could survive as far north as Massachusetts. Its native range is the southwest, but has expanded to the east coast and as far north as South Carolina. And despite the name, the number of bands it sports can range between as few as seven and as many as 11. The modern version is much more modest in size it can approach a foot-and-a-half in length - two-and-a-half including the tail - and weigh 17 pounds. Fossils of an armadillo ancestor the size of a rhinoceros date back 60 million years. They're now found in almost every corner of Florida the exceptions: the Keys and parts of the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. The groups eventually merged, as the armadillo population expanded. A second population came into the Panhandle from southern Alabama during the 1960s. They were introduced into the Sunshine State on the east coast during the 1920s. ![]() It's what's beneficial about him, from a human point of view, and also what's destructive.Īrmadillos are not native to Florida. This is the nine-banded armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus. We once watched one working the forest floor at Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek for about 15 or 20 minutes, and in all that time, his face was almost constantly buried in leaf litter and dirt searching for some juicy bug to eat. Every inch of its body other than its ears and belly is protected by a flexible, leathery shield.īut if you study them, you start seeing a living plow. The first thing that comes to mind when you see an armadillo is tank, because of its extensive body armor. ![]()
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