09/29/2026
The armadillo is the official small mammal of Texas, and almost everything about it is stranger than people realize. 🦔
Start with the litter. A nine banded armadillo does not have four babies. It has one fertilized egg that splits, so it has four identical quadruplets, always the same s*x, every single time. There is no other mammal in North America that reproduces that way as a rule. They are nearly blind, they find everything by smell, and they will dig up your yard looking for grubs with absolutely no shame about it.
Then there is the jumping. When something startles an armadillo, it does not run first. It launches straight up, three or four feet in the air. Out in the brush that is a fine way to shock a coyote into backing off. On a two lane road at night it is the worst possible reflex, because the animal jumps directly into the undercarriage of a vehicle that would otherwise have passed right over the top of it.
They can also hold their breath for several minutes and simply walk across the bottom of a creek, or gulp air until they float. 🌵
Buenavistawildlifesafari.com
