The Armadillo Invasion Gathers Force - Established In Illinois, S. Carolina, Seen In Iowa, Indiana

[hatrack]

A frightened armadillo leaps into the air at a Florida research station.


An armored invasion is underway across the midwestern and eastern United States: Armadillos are moving into new territories once thought unsuitable for the warm-weather creatures. There are 20 known species of armadillo, but only one—the nine-banded armadillo—has ventured out of Latin America. The species arrived in Texas during the 1880s and has been spreading into new habitats ever since.

In recent years the nine-banded armadillo has even established itself as far east as South Carolina and as far west as Illinois, and the animals are sometimes spotted in Indiana and Iowa. If the trend continues, some experts predict that the armadillo may soon be spotted in the wild as far north as Washington, D.C., or even New Jersey.

Some scientists have suggested that increasing temperatures due to climate change may be allowing armadillos to move into more habitats. But armadillo expert Colleen McDonough, a biologist at Valdosta State University in Georgia, doubts this is the case. For starters, armadillos have been consistently moving northward and eastward from the Rio Grande since the latter part of the 19th century, she said.

"There are different hypotheses as to why—one being that the expansion was facilitated by land-use practices and removal of large mammalian predators," she said. "Because this movement has been consistent over the years, I think it is a continuation and not directly the result of recent climate change."

EDIT

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/111007-armadillos-united-states-invasive-species-animals-environment/

[leveymg]

1. So, who's gonna stop us? Your puny human weapons are helpless against us . . .

[hatrack]

2. I, for one, welcome our nine-banded overlords!

nt

[leveymg]

3. Note to Washington: Manticore knows when to exit the fight once he's won (or lost) it.

You don't see him still hanging around in Iraq and Afghanistan, like a 21st Century Schizoid Man.

[valerief]

4. They eat ants and termites. Kinda like a natural Terminix. Then again, they carry leprosy.

And with no real national healthcare plan, glad-handing candidates can contract leprosy from infected constituents. But Congress doesn't care. They'll just stop glad-handing.

[SteveM]

5. Took over Florida after WW-II; no one noticed...

What with walking catfish, poisonous toads, pythons by the tens of thousands, legions of hogs, monkeys, etc., the only thing peculiar was the "cracking" sound when your Straight-8 Buick center-shot one.

Damned things are the noisiest critters in the field, and can't see worth a hoot. I'll be out deer hunting and hear what sounds like a sounder of hogs working my way, and it's a 'dillo. They'll come right up to you because of their vision, but make a noise and they can scramble away pretty fast. I use them for background noise when deer stalking.

[freethought]

6. Illinois! Really!

That is pretty incredible. An armadillo would be the last animal I would expect to move north, as far north as Illinois at any rate.
I was surprised enough to run into coyotes while hunting the northern part of Maine. Give them time and you'll probably see these armadillos there too.

[Nihil]

7. Thanks for that photo!

At first I thought that someone had photoshopped it into being
a ninja-dillo but then read the caption and yes, it looks exactly
like a "What the FUCK was that?"-dillo!

:toast: