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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
nine-banded
armadillo |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Mammalia |
| ORDER: |
Xenarthra |
| FAMILY: |
Dasypodidae |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Dasypus
(hairy or rough foot) novemcinctus (nine
girdles) |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
Armadillos
are covered by hard leathery skin and 7-11 ossified
dermal plates on back, tail, head, and sides, and
tough skin on the ears. The bands are connected
by soft tissue. The nine-banded armadillo has four
digits on its front feet, five on its back feet,
and long, sharp curved claws. The tail has 12-15
rings. |
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| SIZE: |
Approximately
616-800 mm total length (24.6-32 in.); tail length
245-370 mm (9.8-14.8 in.) |
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| WEIGHT: |
Approximately
3-7 kg (6.6-15.4 lb.) |
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| DIET: |
Includes
animal matter, including ants, beetles, other arthropods,
small reptiles, and amphibians; eggs, birds, small
mammals, and carrion also occasionally eaten; will
also supplement diet with fruit, berries, and vegetation |
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| GESTATION: |
Gestation
lasts approximately 120 days (usually after a delayed
implantation of up to 4 months); an average of four
genetically identical young are born |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
Approximately
1 year |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
Up
to 16 years; 6-7 years average in wild |
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| RANGE: |
Peru
and northern Argentina to southeastern United States,
islands of Grenada, Trinidad, and Tobago |
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| HABITAT: |
Tropical
forests, semi desert, grasslands |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
Unknown |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Not
listed |
| CITES |
Not
listed |
| USFWS |
Not
listed |
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| 1. |
Mainly nocturnal or crepuscular, armadillos rely
mostly on their sense of smell, enabling them to
detect insects up to eight inches underground. |
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| 2. |
Armadillos have ability to hold breath for up to
six minutes-useful for keeping dust out of their
lungs when digging their long burrows, which can
be over 20 feet long and 6-12 feet deep. |
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| 3. |
This same ability to hold their breath comes in
handy when crossing shallow bodies of water, which
they will walk or run across the bottom of due to
their high specific gravity compared to water. |
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| 4. |
If
an armadillo needs to cross deeper, wider stretches
of water, it can actually swallow air into its digestive
tract, and swim at the surface, like a dog. |
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| 5. |
Using
their long, sticky tongues, (much in the same manor
as their anteater relatives), armadillos can eat
more than 40,000 ants at one feeding. |
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| 6. |
The
armadillo's largest armored ancestor, the "Glyptodon",
was 16 feet long and had a 10-foot carapace on its
back. It lived until historical times, and its body
armor was actually used by some South American Indians
for shelter. |
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| 7. |
Although
their dermal shield does not cover their bellies,
nine-banded armadillos lack the ability to curl
their body into a complete ball (unlike some other
armadillo species). Instead, nine-banded armadillos
will sometimes jump up to 8 feet straight up in
the air as a defense mechanism to startle predators.
Unfortunately, sometimes this reflexive response
backfires when the armadillo is startled by something
else other than a predator, such as a car, often
resulting in the animal's untimely death when hitting
the vehicle's undercarriage. |
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| Armadillos
were first introduced in the U.S. from Mexico in
the late 19th century. They are a food source for
many animals and even people in parts of the southern
U.S. and Latin America. They help control insect
populations including harmful species. Armadillos
are commonly used for medical research on reproduction.
They have four identical, same-sex offspring every
time. They are also used to study organ transplants,
birth defects, and diseases such as leprosy (of
which they are carriers), typhus, and trichinosis.
In fact, they are the only mammals besides humans
that suffer from lepromatid leprosy.
Armadillos
are excellent diggers-building burrows with their
strong claws and forearms. Many other animals
such as rabbits, skunks, and possums share these
burrows. Unfortunately, this habit also causes
havoc to human landscaping, so they are considered
pests. Their habitats are constantly under stress
due to an expanding human population and ever-changing
cattle pastures. Loss of natural predators has
kept the armadillo population numbers high.
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|
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Nowak,
R. M. Walker's Mammals of the World Fifth Ed.
Vol. II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1991.
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Parker, S.P. (ed.). Grizmek's Encyclopedia of
Mammals. Vol 5. New York: McGraw Hill Pub. Co.,
1990. |
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Houston Zoo. www.houstonzoo.org
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| Museum
of Texas Tech University. www.nsrl.ttu.edu |
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