Yes, FAU Has Armadillos

By Chris Persaud

Photo by Chris Persaud

NAME: The nine-banded armadillo

A.K.A.: Dasypus novemcinctus

DATE LAST PHOTOGRAPHED: 01/02/2011

LOCATION LAST PHOTOGRAPHED: FAU Boca campus preserve

THE BACKSTORY: A long, long time ago, the great Mayan sun god wanted to teach two lesser gods a lesson for being rebellious. He sat them on a bench in front of all the other gods, and then — BOOM — the bench turned into two armadillos that sprung up, catapulting the rebellious gods onto their humbled backs.

This is how the first armadillos were created — according to the ancient Mayans, at least.

In reality, the scaly nine-banded armadillo that we know and love is thought to have evolved from the now-extinct Dasypus bellus, which was just a bit a bigger than our nine-banded armadillo.

PHYSICAL PROFILE: At 2-and-a-half feet long and 14 pounds, holding a nine-banded armadillo can be comparable to holding a human baby — granted that the skin on the baby’s back hardened and that it developed a taste for sweet, sweet insects.

WHERE THEY ARE AND WHEN THEY ARE: If you want to see one of these little quadrupedal tanks in action, but don’t want to go too far, just head up to the preserve on the Boca campus, just north of Lee Street.  You’ll know you’re there when you’re totally surrounded by trees.  All photos in this post were taken there. During the day, you might spot one roaming around outside its burrow in search of insects to snack on. But the best time of day is at night, since nine-banded armadillos, like FAU dorm-dwellers, are primarily nocturnal creatures.

Sometimes nine-banded armadillos live in burrows that were once occupied by gopher tortoises instead of digging one themselves. Photo courtesy of Joshua Scholl

BASEMENT-DWELLER: While nine-banded armadillos generally dig their own burrows, they have been known to use burrows that used to belong to gopher tortoises, according to FAU biology lab team member Joshua Scholl.

MATING AND REPRODUCTION: Much like your parents, nine-banded armadillos get into the missionary position when mating. Mating season for the nine-banded armadillo is between July and December.

Interesting note: When giving birth, nine-banded armadillos always give birth to same-sex quadruplets — from just one embryo!

TREATING LEPROSY: In the 1960s, biochemist Eleanor E. Storrs discovered that nine-banded armadillos could easily develop leprosy. Because of this, scientists have been able to study the disease much more conveniently than before the discovery. According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of new cases of leprosy reported worldwide each year has shrunk from 10 to 12 million in the 1970s to just 410,000 in 2004.

So, the next time you see a nine-banded armadillo, say, “Thank you for keeping me leprosy-free.”

Photo by Chris Persaud

All unsourced facts, figured, and information in this post were obtained from http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/fall99projects/armadillo.htm