The armadillos are in Ohio.<\/p>\n
The leathery mammals, mostly associated with dry, sweltering locations like Texas, have been creeping northward over the last century or so. But last week researchers collected a dead armadillo by the roadside four miles east of Oxford, Ohio, near the Indiana border \u2014 the first formally documented armadillo to have migrated to the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping they were going to make it here,\u201d said Tereza Jezkova, an associate professor of biology at Miami University in Ohio. \u201cSimply because I like armadillos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armadillos had been known to dwell in South and Central America until sometime around 1880 to 1890, when they were observed over the Rio Grande in Texas, according to Dr. Jezkova. And they didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
Every dozen years or so, armadillos have popped up in a new U.S. state. In 2017, they reached Southern Illinois, and it seemed only a matter of time before they turned up in Ohio.<\/p>\n
The armadillo, which was found on Sept. 6, is a male, which would have been expected, according to Dr. Jezkova. \u201cMales almost always travel more and farther and show up first in new places,\u201d she said. Her university has taken possession of the armadillo, presumed to have been killed by a vehicle, and expects to send his body to the Hefner Museum of Natural History on campus.<\/p>\n
So will armadillos soon be strolling up Broadway or sunning on the steps of Faneuil Hall? The animals normally cannot deal with cold weather, but Dr. Jezkova said researchers aren\u2019t sure how far north they could go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to stop sometime, but so far, they keep going,\u201d Dr. Jezkova said of their northerly migration. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how they do that and what\u2019s changed that suddenly they can withstand harsh winters.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few armadillos have been spotted in Ohio before, and even Minnesota. But they were so far from others of their species, researchers figured they had hitched a ride on a human-driven vehicle (armadillos enjoy hiding). This armadillo, however, was not too far from verified sightings in Kentucky and Indiana, so it seems likely he crossed the border himself.<\/p>\n
There are around 20 species of armadillo, but only one has made it to the United States, the Mexican long-nosed armadillo. About two feet long and a bit less than 10 pounds, they are unusual beasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey represent a very old lineage of mammals related to sloths and anteaters,\u201d Dr. Jezkova said. \u201cAn armadillo doesn\u2019t even look like a mammal. It has a shell, scales and very little hair. It looks ancient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armadillos are sometimes called \u201cliving fossils,\u201d Dr. Jezkova said, because \u201cthey look like the fossils we dig out. They pretty much stayed the same for millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
While primates, hoofed mammals and felines have greatly diversified, armadillos seemed to decide, \u201cNah, we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their unusual appearance is part of why armadillos seem to pique the public\u2019s curiosity, especially in Texas. One of politics\u2019 most-cited truisms comes from Jim Hightower, the progressive Texas commissioner of agriculture, who once chided centrists by saying, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1927, The New York Times related a tale about the author Rudyard Kipling, who was given an armadillo while visiting Rio de Janeiro, but returned it after a day<\/a>, saying that hotel life \u201cis too terrible a fate for an armadillo.\u201d<\/p>\n