🐾 Nine-banded Armadillo

Nine-banded Armadillo

▶

Tap a video to play it

🔍 See more videos →

Photos

✖ ❮ ❯

Who it is

• Scientific name: Dasypus novemcinctus
• Family & relatives: A member of the armadillo family Dasypodidae, related to anteaters and sloths within the group Xenarthra.
• How to spot it: A dog-sized animal covered in a leathery bony shell with movable bands across the middle and a long tapered tail.

Its body & abilities

• Size: Head and body about 38 to 58 cm, with a tail of 26 to 45 cm.
• Weight: Typically 3 to 6 kg (6 to 14 lb).
• Body & adaptations: Its bony armor of scutes gives protection, while strong claws and a long sticky tongue help it dig and feed.
• Top speed: Can run in quick bursts up to about 48 km/h (30 mph) when startled.
• Strength: A champion digger, it can excavate burrows and unearth insects with astonishing speed.
• Senses: Poor eyesight but excellent smell and hearing, sniffing prey up to 20 cm underground.
• Growing up: Born as identical quadruplets, the young open their eyes within weeks and reach adult size in about a year.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Forests, grasslands, and scrub, favoring warm areas with soft soil for digging.
• Where in the world: From the southern and central United States through Mexico, Central America, and much of South America.
• Territory: Home ranges usually cover about 1 to 15 hectares, often with several burrows.

What it eats

• Diet: Mostly insectivorous but omnivorous, getting water from food and drinking from puddles or streams.
• Favorite foods: Beetles, ants, termites, grubs, worms, and occasionally small vertebrates, eggs, and fruit.
• How it hunts: It roots through soil and leaf litter with its snout, digging out prey it detects by smell.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Trots on short legs and can also swim by gulping air to float or walk along stream bottoms.
• When it is active: Mainly nocturnal or crepuscular, sheltering in burrows during the heat of day.
• Family life: Largely solitary; individuals may share burrows but form no true groups.
• How it talks: Communicates through scent marking and soft grunts and squeals.
• Babies: After delayed implantation and about a four-month pregnancy, it nearly always gives birth to four identical young from one egg.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: Controls insect pests and its burrows shelter other animals; coyotes, bobcats, and large birds prey on it.
• Conservation: Listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, with a large and expanding population.
• Dangers: Frequently killed on roads, by predators, and by cold winters at the edge of its range.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: About 7 to 10 years in the wild and up to around 20 years in captivity.
• In our culture: An icon of Texas and the American South, and a research animal because it can carry the leprosy bacterium.
• Where to see it: Texas Hill Country, southeastern U.S. parks, and reputable zoos with Americas exhibits.
• Fun fact: When startled it can leap straight up about a meter into the air, an instinct that sadly leads to many car collisions.