armadillo in Iowa

[Rut Nut]

Got this picture today In southern Marion County. I guess there have been a few spotted in the state.

 

[Daver]

Can they survive an Iowa winter?

Semi-related...I was in a car once that hit one of these creatures on dark, lonely road in Oklahoma and it sounded and felt like we ran over a bowling ball. LOUD! Watch out for them on the roads!

 

[CurtisWalker]

Quite a few show up in Iowa out of livestock trailers. Wonder if you have new cows in your area and if you’ll have a big EHD outbreak.


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[JNRBRONC]

A Coralville police officer got pics of one last year. They thought it probably hitch hiked to Iowa on a vehicle.


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[Elvis188]

Possum on a half shell!

 

[Obsessed]

Can they survive an Iowa winter?

Semi-related...I was in a car once that hit one of these creatures on dark, lonely road in Oklahoma and it sounded and felt like we ran over a bowling ball. LOUD! Watch out for them on the roads!

I imagine they could survive a rare mild Iowa winter, but the next winter would probably take them out.

I've got family in Oklahoma City area, where armadillos litter the highways. I guess they jump straight up when they're startled. Most automobiles would have enough clearance to miss them completely, but when they jump up, they get clobbered by the underside of the autos. Not the tires or bumpers like other critters. I'd think eventually this would weed out those with the genetic predisposition to jump when startled, so the genes of those non-jumpers would become more dominant. In time.