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ARMADILLO BALL SKIN
Baby armadillos have soft leathery skin which hardens after a few weeks.Armadillos are able to delay implantation of the fertilised egg at times of stress it is thought this can be delayed for as long as 2 years!.They are produced from a single egg which splits in four, meaning the babies will all be the same gender. The Nine-banded armadillo always gives birth to 4 identical quadruplets.
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They can smell things which are up to 20cm below the ground! They also have long straggly fur on their underside to allow them to feel what they are walking over, used similarly to a cat’s whiskers. With very poor eyesight and hearing, armadillos rely on their strong sense of smell to hunt.If given the chance, they will eat small ground-nesting birds and their eggs. An armadillos diet is comprised of beetles, insects, ants, termites, plants and some fruit.For example, an armadillos tongue is long and sticky, like anteaters, designed to extract ants and termites from their tunnels. Armadillos are closely related to sloths and anteaters, sharing some similarities.Generally solitary creatures except during mating, they will sometimes group together in a burrow in cold conditions to keep warm.Armadillos have a low body temperature, between 33-36˚C (91-97˚F), a human’s body temperature is 37˚C (98.6˚F).If there are times of unusually cold weather, a whole population can be wiped out! Due to their lack of fat stores and low metabolic rate, armadillos hate the cold.This tactic confused predators, even a dog cannot undo the armadillo’s ball. Many think of armadillos rolling themselves into a ball for protection but in fact there is only one species – the three-banded armadillo – which can encase itself in its shell, curling its head and feet inwards forming a hard ball.The plates overlap each other for added protection. The plates cover their back, legs, head and tail, composed of small epidermal scales of horn-covered bone. They are the only living mammal to wear such a shell. Armadillos are covered in bony plates that create their ‘armour’.Armadillo is a Spanish word, translating to ‘little armoured one’, named by Spanish explorers to Latin America.Expanding northward, the Nine-banded armadillo is now a common sight in Missouri, USA.During the 1920s depression, the Nine-banded armadillo was eaten, referred to as the ‘Hoover Hog’ as a result of President Hoovers failure to keep meat on the tables. The Nine-banded armadillo is the official state small mammal of Texas, nicknamed the ‘hillbilly speed bump’ as they are hit on the roads so often.There are 20 different species of armadillo, all of which live solely in Latin America with the exception of the Nine-banded armadillo which has expanded into the USA.