(posted on MULTIPLY May 10, 2011)
I was awakened by the dogs last night. I could tell by the way they were barking that they were harrying some poor critter. I only hoped it wasn't a skunk. I went outside, but couldn't see what they had cornered. I could hear an odd, faint noise that I couldn't identify.
This morning, I moved my car back to the carport. I had parked just outside the back door to make it easier to bring in the groceries and hadn't bothered to move it. I knew something was under it by the way the dogs kept looking under the front of it. When I walked back to the house from the garage, I found this fellow, face down, in a burrow he had dug under the car.
I kept the dog from getting him (Klaus really hates armadillos) and he moved out and away, looking for another place to go to ground. He wasn't in a huge hurry, so I was able to snap some photos with my phone.
This is a Nine-banded Armadillo. They are quite common in our neck of the woods. They are the only species of armadillo that is increasing. Many others (there are some 20 kinds of armadillo) are endangered. These nocturnal critters have a shell made of boney plates. If you want to know more about these animals, you can follow this link: https://www.msu.edu/~nixonjos/armadillo/dasypus.html
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