![]() When Should You Be Concerned About Zoonotic Diseases From Nuisance Wildlife? Tab will move on to the next part of the site rather than go through menu items. Enter and space open menus and escape closes them as well. Up and Down arrows will open main level menus and toggle through sub tier links. Left and right arrows move across top level links and expand / close menus in sub levels. And for anyone who’s ever been bitten by a fire ant, that’s reason enough to smile the next time you see one of these odd, meandering creatures in your neighborhood.The site navigation utilizes arrow, enter, escape, and space bar key commands. If you are looking for one reason to celebrate the armadillo in the Lowcountry, keep in mind that these relatives of anteaters devour fire ant eggs. When startled, they can jump three feet into the air, into the undercarriage of a passing car. Their poor eyesight and wobbly gait are no match for speeding cars. You are sure to see them on roads like Route 61, meandering across the pavement or, unfortunately, as road kill. You may find them in your garden eating insects and grubs while uprooting your plants along the way. In the Palmetto State, it seems armadillos have found the perfect weather and environment to thrive. Implantation of the fertilized egg can be delayed for four months as the female awaits a more favorable time for birthing her “pups.” This one egg in the Nine-banded armadillo always splits and produces four identical offspring. These placental mammals mate without fanfare (competing males may stomp around a little) and only a single egg in the female Nine-banded armadillo is fertilized. What we see in the United States is the Nine-banded armadillo, (Dasypus Novemcinctus).Īrmadillos sleep 16 hours a day in their 15-foot burrows and become active at dusk. The Big Hairy and the Pink Fairy varieties are found only in South America. It resembles a fat, short, centipede that is a delicate pink color. There are twenty-one varieties… like the Big Hairy armadillo, covered with hair all over their body which works like feelers or antennae… or the tiny Pink Fairy armadillo which is only four inches long and can fit in the palm of your hand. They were first spotted in South Carolina in 1995! Visit our website (to watch an armadillo swimming in the surf on Edisto Beach in They can also carry rabies and salmonella, so think twice before trying to catch, touch or eat one.Īrmadillos originated in South America, slowly made their way across the continent to Central America, then to the United States, finding their way to Texas. During the Great Depression they were eaten and called “the Poor Man’s Pork.”Ī strange fact about armadillos is that they can transmit leprosy (Hanson’s disease) to humans. A hungry dog might also be tempted, as would a very hungry human. Natural predators like cougars, bobcats and alligators don’t let scutes of hardened keratin stop them from grabbing an armadillo for lunch. These scutes have given the armadillo the nickname of “possum on a half shell.” This prehistoric looking mammal is not dangerous.Īrmadillo is a Spanish word meaning “little armored one.” The armadillo has peg-like teeth, a long nose and sticky tongue like an anteater’s, a segmented, rat-like tapered tail, long sharp claws and hard but flexible plates of “armor” called scutes on its back. ![]() This wild animal doesn’t even notice you since its ears, eyes and nose are totally dedicated to finding insects and grubs. What you see, if you are brave enough to peek outside, is not Sasquatch but a football-sized creature shuffling around the ground making a big racket as it searches for food. IMAGINE CAMPING IN THE Lowcountry and just as you are drifting off to sleep, you hear what sounds like Big Foot prowling around your tent. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |