An armadillo roadkill found in Lincoln in September was the first recorded by Animal Control, but the leathery mammals have been spotted across the state for about a decade, according to the Nebraska Game
MARK ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, October 8, 2008 7:00 pm
An armadillo roadkill found in Lincoln in September was the first recorded by Animal Control, but the leathery mammals have been spotted across the state for about a decade, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
They’re widespread but rare.
“It’s the first one we’ve documented,” Robert Westfall, with Lincoln’s Animal Control, said of the Sept. 11 report.
Another armadillo roadkill was found in Lincoln at 48th and Nebraska 2 around 2000, according to Mike Fritz, natural heritage zoologist for Game and Parks.
Fritz said he wants to study live Nebraska armadillos. So far, they’ve only encountered desiccated roadkills. If you see one alive, call Fritz at 471-5419.
Five or six years ago, Fritz said, he had hoped to catch a live armadillo that was tearing up a Hallam garden, but it moved on.
Armadillos carry health considerations and are one of few mammals that harbor leprosy, though it’s rare for them to pass it on to humans, Fritz said. The Internet has tons of recipes for Texas barbecued armadillo.
In the south, where armadillos are common, they’re mostly a nuisance because of burrowing.
Digging and rolling into a tight ball when threatened are two of its survival strategies. The third, hopping when frightened, tends to carry it upward into the paths of oncoming car bumpers, accounting for their high road mortality.
Armadillos don’t hibernate, so their survival depends on winter severity. They’ve established themselves in Kansas and are widespread across southern Missouri, Fritz said.
Nebraska’s recent winters have been mild enough that armadillos have established small breeding populations here, he said. Game and Parks gets reports of armadillos each year. There were a dozen reports of them a couple years ago, he said.
“We’ve even had reports from the Bassett area (not far from the South Dakota border) in January,” he said.
“Even though they seem to be this slow, lumbering animal,” Fritz said, “they’re actually fairly efficient at expanding their range.”
Armadillos didn’t inhabit the United States until the early 1900s, when they crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas.
As mammals, Fritz said, they’re in a class by themselves. They have among the lowest natural body temperatures, Fritz said. And their offspring always come in fours, and they’re always identical. They come from one fertilized egg that splits into four.
Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.