Baby armadillo - by Tom Uhlman/AP Photo
Ok, this may sound weird, but I love armadillos. They’re just so cute!! Look at the little baby.. aww.. it’s adorable.. They’re like big roly-polies (which I also love)!
I dunno.. maybe it’s because I’m Asian and it’s in our genes to love anything similar to Pokémons.
Whatever the reason, it is another factor that makes me love Austin, since it is one of the only places in the U.S. that has armadillos. The armadillo is also the state mammal of Texas.
Anyway, despite my Asian-ness, I was born in Austin, and one of my earliest memories include a memory of an armadillo that used to live by my house. I was like, 4 years old, and if I happened to wake up really really early, I could sometimes see an armadillo waddle up to this huge ant bed we had behind our house to eat ants.
My mom later told me that armadillos can roll up into balls and protect themselves with their hard shells. Ever since then.. I just had this.. deep desire to.. just.. KICK IT!! just once. To see how hard it was, and if it could roll like a ball.
I was never allowed to fulfill this urge, and of course that has just made it worse. I’m just waiting to see my next armadillo… (just kidding. not really, but.. yeah.)
Here are some fun facts about armadillos that make them all the more cooler.
- When startled, the armadillo can jump straight upward about three to four feet into the air. Unfortunately, many armadillos are killed when they jump into the underside of moving vehicles.
- Armadillos can cross bodies of water in two ways. They can:
1. inflate their stomachs and intestines with air and float across the water, or,
2. sink down and use their sharp claws to walk across the bottom.
They can hold their breath for six minutes or more! - 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.
Bet you didn’t know that!
-Jane
The facts above were taken from Everyday Mysteries, and Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Jane Kim
jeffbechdel
Samantha G.
Caitlin W
Saul
Brittany
These were great facts!! I had no idea armadillos could do so much cool stuff. Inflating intestines/holding breath. . .I love that one creature can have a sort of paradox inside of it:-P I’m not gonna lie, though – I hope you don’t meet one, I’m a little afraid it will become a soccer ball!!
Wow. Truly amazing facts! haha, I’ve sort of been disappointed by armadillos since coming to Austin. Namely… the fact that I haven’t ever seen one. I guess maybe I need more Austin wildlife experiences… There’s a topic for a post, if anyone wants it! By the way, the Pokemon comment got me laughing out loud in the PCL… sort of embarrassing, but worth it.
Girl,
this was very weird and quirky… just like Austin, haha. I couldn’t stop reading as much as I wanted to. Armadillos gross me out… mostly for the very same reasons why you love them. Ew. And I could never get close enough to one to kick it! haha
-bri
found this through google, and was worth the search.
really interesting facts.
i can now say i rate armadillos highly.
i want to know more facts
Also, armadillos can carry leprosy. It’s completely true.
The part about leprosy is true. what is not true, is that Texas is the only state with armadillos. Louisiana has lots of them, unless they are being airlifted out onto my lawn. They dig holes in the lawn at night, and I catch them at it often enough.
crikey would never have guessed they’d carry leprosy. how bizarre. haha can now imagine helicopters carrying armadillos. what a site that would be. the only thing i can see in my garden are foxes and the odd badger. oh yes, and cats. but theres been wild birds that escaped from bird world. perhaps an armadillo will get dropped off here in surrey!
Austin is not only place to have armadillos, not by a longshot. You will find them splattered all over the road from Georgia to New Mexico, and all over northern Mexico.
You might also be surprised, and saddened, to learn that people who actually see armadillos frequently dislike them. They have a nasty habit of digging up your yard and being hard to get rid of.
but the little ones are cute, aren’t they?
I HATE THEM!!!! THEY ARE DOING A BIG BUT BIG IN MY YARD!!! I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!!!! GET OUT OF HERE
!!!!!!
I’ve been doing some reading on Armadillos and found that the only species that can actually roll itself in a ball is the Three-banded Armadillo. I found that interesting because I thought all armadillos could roll themselves into a ball. But, it turns out that all but the Three-banded are too heavily armored to be that flexible.