Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Deserts and drylands

Armadillo

Dasypus novemcinctus

An armor of bone and keratin

The keratin bands around its midsection allow the armadillo to bend, but not to roll into a ball.
The keratin bands around its midsection allow the armadillo to bend, but not to roll into a ball.
  • Status: Safe
  • Grasslands, woodlands, and suburbs from South America to the United States

Numbers

Weight
16,5 lb11 to 22 lb
Length
20 inbody 16-24 inches, plus 10-20 inches of tail, up to 43 inches total
Height
12 inat the shoulder, always less than this value
Lifespan
10 yearsunder 10 years in the wild, 15 to 20 in captivity, record 23 years
Jump
4 ftvertical panic leap
Breath holding
6 minuteswalks on riverbeds
Ants in one meal
40000 antsin a single meal

Ten fun facts

  1. the babies in a litter develop from a single egg, making them identical quadruplets that are always the exact same sex.

  2. to cross a river, this creature swallows air to inflate its intestines so it can float easily across the water.

  3. it can hold its breath for more than six minutes, allowing it to cross deep streams by walking along the bottom.

  4. a single meal can consist of up to forty thousand ants, which are scooped up using a long and sticky tongue.

  5. it has only rootless molars without enamel, while incisors form in the embryo but disappear before the baby is born.

  6. when startled, it leaps four feet straight up into the air, which often causes it to collide with passing vehicles.

  7. it digs up to twelve burrows across its territory and rotates between them, finding fresh prey in empty tunnels.

  8. in 1975, over thirty percent of certain populations carried leprosy, a disease caused by the exact same bacterium in humans.

  9. German settlers called it armored pig, and during the Great Depression people often referred to it as poor man's pork.

  10. when persimmons ripen in Texas, these sweet fruits can make up eighty percent of the local armadillo's total diet.

The quiz answers

Five questions about this animal. Pick an answer and find out if it is the right one.

Question 1 of 5

What is the armor made of?

Question 2 of 5

How many young are usually born in a litter?

Question 3 of 5

How does it cross streams and rivers?

Question 4 of 5

What does it mainly eat?

Question 5 of 5

What prevents it from expanding further north?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Use a tape measure to mark four feet on a wall and try to jump that high. That is how high a startled armadillo can leap.

Experiment 2

Time how long you can hold your breath safely. An armadillo can hold its breath for over six minutes while walking on the bottom of a river.

Experiment 3

Unroll a measuring tape to twenty-three feet in your hallway. That is the impressive length of a tunnel dug by a single armadillo.

Data from Wikidata (Q649549) and Wikipedia (Nine-banded armadillo).