More than 150 years before the Bush Administration established the Homeland Security Administration and began to wall off our southern border, a group of armored Mexicans slipped across the Rio Grande River. Gaining a foothold in southern Texas, these foreign nationals spread throughout most of the State by the early 1900s, moving into Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma over the next few decades. Today, they have been seen as far west as New Mexico, as far east as the Gulf Coast States and as far north as southern Kansas and south-central Missouri.
While not terrorists, nine-banded armadillos have surely torn up gardens and farmland with their propensity to dig. Using their clawed feet to create a network of burrows, armadillos favor moist rocky woodlands and prairie stream valleys; they avoid wetland areas, where a high water table tends to flood their dens. Covered with overlapping, boney plates from heat to tail, these small mammals have poor eyesight but are equipped with an excellent sense of smell. They are primarily active at night, feeding on insects, earthworms, slugs and eggs; unfortunately, their nocturnal wanderings also make them a major contributor to roadkill. Natural predators include fox, coyotes and owls; ill-equipped for cold weather, many die off after prolonged winter storms.
One of twenty species in the Americas, the nine-banded armadillo is the only one to have entered the U.S. After mating in July, the female carries the fertilized egg in her uterus for almost 5 months before it implants; four identical quadruplets, all developing from the single egg and sharing one placenta, are born in late winter or early spring. Initially armorless, they soon leave the burrow to hunt with their mother. If this process continues, we will be overrun by armored immigrants; someone better contact Lou Dobbs!
