Armadillo
The armadillo is an odd-looking mammal covered with armored plates,
and is about the size of a cat. Armadillos are not native to Florida, but are now common
over most of the state. Armadillos like forested or semi-open habitats with loose textured
soil that allows them to dig easily. They dig burrows for homes or to escape predators.
They eat many insects, or other invertebrates, and some plants. Moist soil and lush
vegetation bring earth worms and insect larvae (armadillo candy!) to the surface of the
soil. They most often feed at night, and have very poor eyesight.
A distant counsin of the sloth and the anteater, the originated in South America. Its name
comes from a Spanish word referring to its armor like covering. The shell is made of a
bone like casing. The armor consists of a large shield over the shoulders, a second large
shield over the rump, and bands in the middle. Because the shell itself cannot grow nor be
replaced as the armadillo grows, it is soft and leathery when the armadillo is born. It
does not harden until the armadillo reaches its full adult size of 8 to 15 pounds. While
not as slow as the sloth, the armadillo rarely hurries. Walking on the soles of its back
feet and the tips of its claws on its front feet, the armadillo ambles along at no more
than a third of a mile per hour. However, the armadillo is able to run when danger
threatens. Its hard shell allows it to run through thorny underbrush when fleeing
predators.
The armadillo has a particularly interesting method for crossing water. Its heavy armor
shell causes it to sink. When faced with a narrow stream or a water filled ditch, the
armadillo will simply walk across the bottom, under water. However, when up against a
wider body of water, the armadillo will swallow enough air to inflate its stomach to twice
its normal size. This increased buoyancy then allows the armadillo to swim across.
Afterwards, it takes the armadillo several hours to release all the excess air from its
body.
Like its cousin the anteater, the armadillo loves to feast on ants. In fact, it's fond of
all kinds of bugs, particularly larval and adult scarab beetles. The armadillo has a keen
sense of smell and can sniff out a tasty meal six inches underground. When digging for
grubs, worms, and other goodies, it leaves behind three to four inch cone shaped holes. It
regularly revisits these holes to gobble up any new bugs or snails which may have slipped
in. Its sticky, barbed tongue aids it in picking up its food. The armadillo is also known
to feed on carrion, with a distinct preference for the maggots it finds there. It has 30
to 32 teeth, all of them peg shaped molars.
The armadillo's shell provides insulation little insulation for its warm blooded body. In
the summer, the armadillo does most of its foraging in the cool of the evening and at
night. Like the pig, it also enjoys a nice cool mud bath. In the cooler winter months, the
armadillo keeps warm in its burrow and does most of its foraging in the warmer hours of
the afternoon.
Outside of the breeding season, adult armadillos generally live alone. A single armadillo
may have up to 15 burrows (each eight inches in diameter and two to twenty five feet long)
in its 10 acre range. Some burrows have several entrances for emergency access, but there
is always a main entrance which the armadillo uses most of the time.
An armadillo always bears an identical set of quadruplets, conceived from a single
fertilized egg. The initial embryo divides in two and those two embryos divide, in turn,
into two more. Thus every armadillo is a clone of its three brothers or its three sisters.
