But where did these animals come from?
The south. In fact, Mexico originally. Apparently, some armadillos decided the south was not where they wanted to be anymore, so they just packed up and started heading north. As to the question of“ What do they want?” my guess would be a change of scenery.
We do have scenery! Beautifully forested hills and hollers, lakes and streams, a magnificently colorful autumn, and a more temperate climate with friendly folks. So, who wouldn’ t want to come to Brown County?
We know where they came from and we have a good guess as to what they are looking for but what are they, if they’ re not giant, mutated rolypoly bugs?
For a long time I thought they were just southern hard-shelled possums. I was wrong. Turns out possums are marsupials and armadillos are not.
Marsupials are animals with pouches. That means that possums are like kangaroos, but a lot smaller and they don’ t hop much. Possums give birth to an average of eight to nine babies called Joeys( just like kangaroos). The Joeys then spend about two and a half months growing in the mother possum’ s pouch. When they get too big for the pouch they emerge and climb onto the mama’ s back where they get to ride around until she gets tired of the little freeloaders.
Your armadillo mother digs a burrow and gives birth to just four babies, but they are identical and of the same sex. That means that they are quadruplets that developed from one ova. They are called pups. The pups are born with soft skin without shells, much to the relief of the mother armadillo. They develop shells over the next few weeks after birth. They are sort of late bloomers and take up to a year to mature.
Like possums, mature armadillos are generally non-aggressive, solitary creatures. When startled, they can jump four or five feet into the air and run off to the safety of brambles or a briar patch. If they sense that there is no escape, they will quickly scoop out a foxhole( or more probably an armadillo hole), scooch into it, and wait for the threat to pass.
Possums, on the other hand, will rear up on their hind legs when threatened, bare their nasty little needle-like teeth, and hiss at you. If that does not entice the threat to back off, they will just fall over and play dead, hoping that whatever is menacing them will get bored and go away.
It’ s a good thing that both armadillos and possums rely on defensive strategies because if they ever decided to get aggressive and ganged up together it could make a walk in the woods a lot more hazardous.
According to my extensive research, armadillos are carriers of mycobacterium leprae, that is the bacteria that causes leprosy. So, if you come across one of these cute little“ turtle-rabbits” resist the temptation to pet it or pick it up.
Possums and armadillos are edible— if you’ re hungry enough. Back in the 1930s, when times were hard, armadillos were called poor man’ s pork. And possum has been known to grace the tables of more than a few hill folk.
Like lemmings, who are inexplicably drawn to their demise by jumping off cliffs, both armadillos and possums seem compelled to migrate to highways where they sacrifice themselves under the wheels of American travelers.
Though small in number, so far, they are now here among us. Keep an eye out for’ em. •
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