A study predicts that armadillos could soon reach Michigan as their range expansion heads north across the U.S.<\/p>\n
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. \u2014 Armadillos may soon become commonplace in Michigan.<\/p>\n
A new study reveals that the nine-banded armadillo is expanding its range across the U.S., reaching as far north as Indiana and Iowa, indicating potential future expansion into states like Michigan.<\/p>\n
The study explains that \u201cthis rapid range expansion has been a result of land use change, climate change, and at least one human-facilitated release in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brett DeGregorio, Ph.D., from Michigan State University, is one of the authors of the study. He says the migration of armadillos \u2013 which first arrived in southern Texas in 1849 \u2013 has been centuries in the making.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman development and kind of the way that we changed the South Texas landscape allowed them to finally cross the Rio Grande,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201cSince then, they’ve just been moving on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he says climate change is a factor in armadillos\u2019 migration since they\u2019re native to warmer climates, it\u2019s not the primary expansion spur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re just born to run \u2026 rather than establishing a home range and staying there their entire life,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201c10 to 20% of [them] just pick a direction and they move that direction [their entire lives].\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re strange looking creatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About the size of a house cat, they\u2019re covered in grey scales and have a long, pointy nose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of their biggest quirks is their affinity for digging holes \u2013 and lots of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey dig these big burrows,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201cThe entrance is about the size of a volleyball and they can go down about six feet. If you get an established population of armadillos in a forest, all of a sudden you’re gonna have thousands of these burrows on the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
The burrows allow armadillos to avoid predators and rough weather, which could be key to the creatures surviving harsh Michigan winters. The additional holes could also be a big help to other animals, allowing them to seek refuge from anything \u2013 predators, temperatures or even fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While burrows are good for wildlife, they\u2019re less helpful for people \u2013and they might be bad news for gardeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Armadillos] can cause some conflict with people because they root around, dig up the soil looking for grubs,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201cThere’s no doubt that they cause damage to people’s gardens, people’s yards \u2013 so be on the lookout for those new, suspicious holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disturbed lawns aside, DeGregorio says there shouldn\u2019t be anything to worry about with the armadillos’ arrival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re harmless. They’re eating bugs. They’re minding their own business,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201cEnjoy these charismatic, cool, alien-looking things.\u201d<\/p>\n
But before animal-enthused Michiganders get too excited, DeGregorio does not recommend adopting an armadillo as a pet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re nocturnal, so they’re going to be active at night,\u201d DeGregorio said. \u201cThey’re kind of a solitary animal, so I don’t think they’re going to be particularly affectionate or cuddly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of a timeline, DeGregorio isn’t sure precisely when armadillos will be arriving, but he says they’ll be established in Michigan “certainly in our lifetimes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A study predicts that armadillos could soon reach Michigan as their range expansion heads north across the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-81366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}