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Nine-banded Armadillos

Dasypus novemcinctus

Photo by FianaShapiro
Published on Project Noah
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37.2417, -90.9687

Field Notes

Description:

Stumbled upon these 4 armadillos at the base of a hill in the southern Missouri Ozarks. They may be non-native, but they're awesome and it was so exciting to see them, especially as I never had and was having a crappy day.

Habitat:

deciduous forest, base of hill, near rocky outcropping

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (7)
FianaShapiro
Yeah, I bet they're still pretty closely related to that ancestor... even if it was immensely bigger.
shebebusynow
They really do look prehistoric. Guess it works for them. I'll bet flies don't bite them too much.
Sergio Monteiro
Armadillos are native to South America, where they have a long extinct cousin, the Gliptodont, wich was about the size of a VW bus...
FianaShapiro
They're actually not native to that area...their populations have been spreading north and east a lot.
shebebusynow
You got an excellent angle on this guy. He almost looks like a plastic replica of an animal--so hard-shelled. I hadn't realized armadillos were in the Ozarks; guess I'm fuzzy about what their "native" territory is (such things seem to waver anyway; for example, porcupines in Oregon have shifted their territory over time.)

Spotted for Missions

Mission
NWF: Watch for Wildlife!

Tags

Photographed
PublishedNovember 12, 2011

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