Armadillos commonplace now

By

opinions

July 19, 2013 - 12:00 AM

Forty years ago, give or a take a few, I got a call one summer afternoon reporting an armadillo lying dead along the hard-surfaced road south from LaHarpe.
Although skeptical, I drove out to see. Sure enough, at the edge of the pavement was one of the animals that then wasn’t known to be in Kansas. We figured someone had carried the armadillo here from Oklahoma or Texas and dropped it off as a practical joke.
A year or so later another showed up, and before long they no longer were a novelty. I even encountered a couple meandering in a cut soybean field along Big Creek while I was hunting artifacts. They paid me little mind and went about their search for grubs, or whatever it was the field harbored they found good to eat.
Nowadays, it’s difficult to drive far without seeing an armadillo carcass. They seem to have more trouble with vehicles than other animals and when hit, for whatever reason, almost always end up on their backs. An inborn defensive maneuver, to jump three or four feet into the air when startled, doesn’t serve an armadillo well when in the path of a vehicle.
Earlier this month four of the prehistoric-looking creatures were foraging in a yard in southeast Iola. We had a photo in the Register.
Also, I think one has been prowling South Cottonwood, digging for food. There are a number of suspicious-looking holes in our lawn, the likes of which I haven’t seen before. We often have had skunks in the neighborhood, which also like to dig up tasty morsels, but they leave only a small, cone-shaped hole.
According to information I gleaned online, armadillos originated in South America and worked their way north. Within the past few years, they have become commonplace in Kansas and Nebraska. The animals, often joked as being possum on the half-shell, have increased their range because of the lack of predators — except for an occasional motor vehicle.
Their armor plating is a combination of bone and horn and is meant as protection, although armadillos are relatively fast afoot and can burrow with the best of diggers.
Like most wild critters, I don’t think armadillos are dangerous unless cornered or provoked.
Although nocturnal, they do come out during daylight hours. Best approach if one happens by is to stay clear, it will be intent on finding food not confronting a human.

Related
May 22, 2020
April 23, 2019
January 20, 2017
January 31, 2012