Armadillo Mystery

MaryRowe

First off, we shouldn't have armadillos this far north--west-central MO--but we do. They've been moving northward, slowly and steadily, for a couples decades; we've been seeing them occasionally in my neighborhood for about ten years or so. I've seen one on my land a couple times, and suspected it was living in the woods just north of the house. It was.

When I was out foraging the other day I came across a couple of good-sized burrows that I guessed were probably armadillo burrows. Then I came across the critter itself, dead and headless! It had been dead for at least a few days--was beginning to smell, but still in pretty good shape. I couldn't see any damage other than the missing head. No sign of the head anywhere.

So while I'm glad this destructive critter who shouldn't even be here is no more, I'm really curious about what killed it. I didn't think anything could bite through armadillo armor! The burrows I found were flooded. Maybe the critter was forced above ground too early in the season for it, and froze to death or died from related natural causes, and some coyote, or the neighbor's big farm dogs out hunting squirrels, found the body and took off its head to see if it was good to eat? But why not go after the soft underbelly? Or maybe coyote or dog came across the weakened armadillo and killed it? Could a bobcat do that? We don't have bears around here; coyotes and big dogs are the biggest critters around, so far as I know. The whole matter is a mystery to me.

judsoncarroll4

Well, armadillos are certainly good to eat. But, and this is a big but, they can carry some really bad diseases. Y'all know I'm an adventurous eater... and, normally I would say if it smells okay and the liver looks clean, and there are no other obvious diseases/infections, then it is okay. But, I'd hesitate with with an armadillo.

RustBeltCowgirl

My sister who lives in Shawnee, OK has at least one on her property. Along with a wild boar and wild turkey with a pretty big brood of babies.

MaryRowe

Yes, the villains have been steadily moving north for years--the armadillos are moved in around here, though the population is still thin. The wild boar are just beginning to show up around here, though none sighted in my immediate neighborhood--yet. For me, the mystery isn't that the armadillo is here; it's been here for a while. The mystery is what killed it, and why only its head is gone--a head-hunting coyote clan maybe?

I've been checking the web, and though I thought armadillos were pretty much safe from predators, apparently coyotes are major predators. Big dogs can kill them too. But that still doesn't explain why only the head is missing and the rest of the critter is generally undamaged.....

judsoncarroll4

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/894850#Comment_894850

Oh, I mis-read it ... though you were wondering if your dogs could safely eat the rest of it. Yeah, probably coyotes. They tend to eat and run.

JodieDownUnder

@MaryRowe we do not have armadillo down under but from what you have described, I’d bet on the biggest, most destructive predator of them all, humans. Flooded burrows, headless animal! Got to wonder.

jowitt.europe

I have never seen Armadillo in nature. They seem to be such wonderful animals, so ancient and unique. If they are moving where they should not move, it is either because of the climate change - and this is our - humans - fault, or, because somewhere else they were deprived of their living area most probably, by us - humans, so they are looking for another habitat. I hope they will not extinct like so many other species, because humans need more and more space for growing overproduction and then throwing it away. I do not mean small gardeners or farmers, but this awful massive food industry, destroying nature and finally us.

Linda Bittle

I

I've found headless rodents in the forest. My tracking mentors said that owls will sometimes eat the brains because there's a lot of nutrients in the brain. Bears will also catch salmon and eat only the brains for the same reason. I imagine other predators will do the same.

MaryRowe

@judsoncarroll4 Yeah, I suppose coyotes are the likeliest explanation. There's a big one who seems to have a regular route through the area where I found the dead armadillo, so he is likely the headhunter. And though I'm adventurous in my eating too, I'd also have second and third thoughts about an armadillo, or even letting my animals near one, because of the nasty diseases they carry.

@Mary Linda Bittle, West Plains, Missouri that is interesting about headless rodents; I hadn't come across that before. Since a coyote is the likeliest culprit in this case, maybe that's what happened here.

MaryRowe

@jodienancarrow I think this particular mystery has a purely natural explanation: the burrows are flooded because this is heavy clay soil with poor drainage, the ground water table is always high in the spring anyway, and this spring we have had unusually heavy rains. It was really surprising to see them flooded though--I would expect burrow-dwelling animals to know how to engineer for that, but then armadillos are newcomers to this area, and maybe just haven't fully adapted.

I had to wonder about human activity when I found the headless critter too, but this was in roughly the middle of my 30-acre homestead, surrounded by other 30 to 100-acre farms--fairly isolated and unlikely that other humans would be around. I could make a really good mystery out of it, and it is tempting, but the actual solution is probably pretty mundane, alas......

MaryRowe

@jolanta.wittib I suppose I shouldn't be so harsh about the armadillo, but when they move into the neighborhood they quickly become a problem. They are moving north certainly because of climate change, and probably because of human pressure on their habitat as well, and that's not their fault. They are ancient and unique animals, as you say, and they help control grubs, bugs, rodents and such like pests.

But on the other hand,,,,they can carry some really serious diseases, including rabies and leprosy. And they dig like crazy--whole networks of large burrows that will completely destroy yards, pastures, and even the foundations of buildings. Humans and animals break legs or suffer other injuries, small vehicles break axles falling in armadillo burrows. So humans and armadillos don't mix well. The critters belong out in the wild, well south of here! But I agree with you--large scale human activity, and industrial agriculture in particular, is causing so many unforeseen problems, including migration of armadillos....

jowitt.europe

@MaryRowe I can very well understand you. Especially concerning illnesses. Most probably Corona virus spread, because people ate wild animals. Animals have survived with their viruses, before we humans came too close to them... But we cannot remove them just because they have their illnesses. If one animal species is removed from the chain - then it is a chain reaction. Recently there was a very good programme on wolfs in Yellowstone National park. Bringing them back solved so many problems which developed after all the wolfs were killed. Every species is necessary to keep the balance. May be also armadillos have lost their natural predators and started multiplying too fast.

Well, all these animals belong to the wild, but they are loosing their wild because of us. It is just a reflection, but I am more and more worried that we humans are destroying ourselves and the surroundings because of the enormous greed.

JodieDownUnder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCusHZ-FhXs

@MaryRowe this is a bit of a side to your armadillo problem. Our equivalent in Australia is the wombat. They don’t live everywhere, they prefer a sandy loam soil to dig their burrows. So unfortunately they get into some really nice farming country, especially along creek lines. They are mostly nocturnal. We had the privilege of raising one for 6 months but she was turning part human, part dog and part cat. So we handed her over to a special wombat carer, where she could become a wombat again. Super smart and stubborn, she learned to use our cat/dog door in less than 24 hrs. We couldn’t keep her out of the house! She’d kick the cats off their bed in front of the fire and lay there on her back. I found this interesting video on YouTube.

karenjanicki

That does seem odd. I have never seen an Amarillo outside of a zoo before so I admit I'm rather envious. They seem so cool. Why are they not good to have around? Because of the burrowing?

MaryRowe

@jodienancarrow The wombat looks a bit cuter and more personable than an armadillo, but that burrow certainly looks familiar! How interesting that the koala and the rabbit are exploring and maybe using the wombat's burrow as well. There is so much about interaction between species that we don't know and never dream of. I bet raising a wombat was a fascinating experience too, and it would be really easy for it to become a pet.

I can't see myself ever fostering an armadillo though. They're known for their dogged stubbornness, but certainly not for intelligence. This critter I found, (and I'm assuming it is the same one--surely hope there was only one on my property!) I encountered twice before in my woods, in roughly the same place. Both times it almost walked into me before it realized I was there. Then it turned and ran away into a thicket, to the extent an armadillo can be said to run. They don't generally move very fast; the most common place to see them here is smashed on the side of the road because they have never learned to avoid automobiles.

dottile46

The conservation department magazine actually has an article on armadillos this month.

https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2021-05/tiny-tanks

marjstratton

That is very interesting that Armadillo's are moving north. I had never seen possums up north when I was young. We have had them here for years now. Wonder how far behind the Armadillos are and how long it will take them to get up here.

LaurieLovesLearning

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/894931#Comment_894931

Yes, this Canadian only saw one armadillo once (never a wombat nor a possum...so exotic for me!), squished on the side of a highway in Kansas/Oklahoma. Being the only one I had ever seen, I was very disappointed. I guess it was good that I didn't go out and have a closer look after all everyone has said.

I was only there for roughly one day (it was an emergency trip) & so then headed promptly back up north. I am pretty sure that I saw a tarantula cross the highway in front of me though around the same time on the same stretch of highway. What a strange and surreal experience that was.

MaryRowe

@dottile46 That's a good armadillo article--MO Conservationist is such a great magazine. But the author missed the nickname I've always heard: possum on the half-shell, And I have to say that though I encountered the one living in my woods twice while it was alive, and it came within a few feet of me before it realized I was there, I never saw it jump, just scurry away. It is discouraging though, to see the author call them "Natives" just because the varmints wandered in on their own....

@marjstratton They are probably headed your way too. They move slowly but relentlessly. The first time I saw one, it was roadkill in the very southwestern corner of MO in the mid-1990's, and it was a novelty there then. I'm about halfway up the state from there, and saw the first one in my neighborhood about 2010 or 2011. So it probably took them about 20 years or so to cover half the state. I haven't heard if they've made it across the Missouri River yet, but it wouldn't surprise me....

@LaurieLovesLearning You are missing absolutely nothing by being without possums or armadillos--I would count that as another blessing of living in the North! Though of the two, possums aren't nearly as bad, or as much a pest. And we do have one native tarantula around here. I think they must be pretty rare, I've only seen one once, and it was crossing the road too. Come to think of it, that's the only place I've heard of people seeing them!

naomi.kohlmeier

Interesting. Might be a good idea to get some wild game cameras and see what kind of activity is going on there.

The only two encounters I've had with armadillos were these:

My great aunt and uncle had an armadillo shell that they used as a basket with its tail as the handle to hold magazines. I have no idea where they got it.

I live in Nebraska, and someone came back from Texas with a dead armadillo and put it on the road near their neighbor's house as a joke. The neighbor saw it, thought it was newsworthy and the local paper ran a front page article about it. He never did quite live it down.