Cool Facts About Armadillos

This video is part of a miniseries on "Cool Facts about Unusual Plants and Animals." In this episode, a Nine-banded armadillo narrates the movie. Enjoy.

Hey man, I’m a mammal with an armor shell so tough that bullets bounce off me. A few years ago a Texan tried to shoot me and was hospitalized when his bullet ricocheted and hit him in the face.

You may know my cousins: South American anteaters and sloths. We are the only surviving of families of ancient Xenarthran mammals. Our origins can be traced back as the Paleocene, as early as 59 million years ago in South America. Armadillos are the only mammals on earth with their own suit of armor.

Humans call me a nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus). My species lives in North, Central and South America. Nineteen other armadillo species live in Central and South America. They inhabit grasslands, rain forests and semi-arid areas. The smallest is the pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus), usually weighing about 4.2 oz and the largest is the Giant Armadillo (Priodontes maximus), weighing up to 120 pounds. Three-banded armadillos (Tolypeutes matacus and Tolypeute tricinctus) can curl into a ball to protect themselves from predators. I wish that I could do that!

Armadillos are designed for digging and do so constantly. My burrow is typically 8 in (20 cm) wide, 7 ft (2.1 m) deep, and 25 ft (7.6 m) long. I sleep 16-18 hours every day and forage above ground, mostly at night. My sensitive nose can detect food through 8 inches of soil. I lap-up grubs, slugs, worms and insects with my sticky tongue. Although I am sometimes considered a pest, “messing-up” gardens — uprooting bedding plants, I actually am beneficial to the environment, consuming invertebrates that cause the most damage to crops and lawns. I am one of the few animals that eat fire ants. I dig only where I smell something tasty to eat and my activity aerates the soil. I avoid dry soil and areas that are sprinkled with repellants such as pepper dust. If you want me to be your best fiend, put a few earthworms and damp soil in an empty flower pot. I will dig in that flower pot, leaving your bedding plants alone.

Although armadillos are nearly blind and have poor hearing, we have no trouble navigating using our nose. We also feel our way around using coarse hairs on our face and undersides, similar to the way cats use their whiskers.

We have a low body temperature (91-97 F) and slow metabolism, about half other similar-sized mammals. Some folks say that makes us “primitive” but it allows us to get by on very little food and oxygen — pretty important since our heads in the dirt most of the time.

My armor is made from plates of horn-covered bone that are so heavy that I can walk along the bottom of a stream. But if I want to float across a lake, I swallow air to inflate my stomach, giving me temporary buoyancy. Pretty cool trick!

Folks in Texas like me so much that I was named the official State Small Mammal. But some people call me a Texas Speed Bump. They joke about using cars to run over me. The main cause of my road death is not because car wheels run over met, but rather, when I’m startled, I automatically jump three or four feet in the air, and hit the undercarriage of passing vehicles.

Sometimes people eat me, saying that I taste like pork, calling me “possum on the half-shell.” In the American south, some recipes call us “ Hoover Hogs” Folks blamed the Great Depression on President Hoover and so they called us by his name. No respect for a living dinosaur!

We are solitary animals that spend our lives foraging alone and only interact to breed and care for young Females give birth to identical quadruplets in the spring. After birth, the quadruplets remain in the burrow, living off their mother’s milk for three months. We begin to forage above ground during the day, when mother is sleeping. Young armadillos forage together, being the best of friends, warning each other when danger is near. After their first summer, they become independent and disperse. They are rarely seen during the day after maturing.

Similar to human beings, armadillos can carry leprosy. Scientists believe that people transmitted the disease to us about 400 to 500 years ago. Transmission of leprosy from armadillos to human beings is rare. It requires close contact with the animals and their saliva. The best advice is to avoid unnecessary contact. In Texas, two cases of leprosy have been documented from eating raw or under-cooked armadillo. The thought of eating armadillos makes me shutter… Please Don’t do it.

Videography by Ken Kramm, 4 June 2017, Chucky the Construction Worker - Stings by Kevin Creative Commons http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?

Видео Cool Facts About Armadillos канала KennethKramm