Texas State Animal - Nine-banded Armadillo

On June 16th, 1995, the nine-banded armadillo was officially declared as the state animal of Texas. Most common of all armadillos, this animal belongs to the family of the Dasypodidae. It is mostly found in North, Central and South America. It immigrated to Texas in the 19th century, and as of now it is widely seen mammal. Although it is called nine banded, all of them do not have more than seven bands on its armored body. They are very environmentally adaptable animals, and can survive very comfortably in scrub, woods, open prairies, and tropical rainforests. They live up to 12 to15 years in the wild.

Physical Characteristics
This Texas species has a distinct shell casing made out of bone. The mammal has two large shell casings covering the shoulders and the rump, with seven or nine bands in the middle. However, when the armadillo is born, the armored shell is soft and leathery, and hardens once it has reached its full adult weight of 8 to 15 lbs. Their total body length is about 15-17 inches, and the male and female armadillo weighs about 11-17 lbs and 8-13 lbs respectively. They have strong claws, and a long, tapered 14-16 inches tail which is completely covered by bony rings. They have 30 or 32 peg shaped teeth, and a really long tongue.

Behavior
Nine-banded Armadillos are solitary, nocturnal animals. They become more active during the night, twilight or just before sunrise. They can dig some really deep burrows at roughly 8 inches wide, 7 feet deep, and 25 feet long. They are highly territorial and always mark their territories. However, while females are exclusive with their territories, males tend to overlap into others territories. Their body has an excellent mechanism to get across lakes, ponds, and marshes. The armadillo either inflates its stomach and intestines with air, and floats across the water, or just sinks down and walks across the bottom, using its sharp claws. Their tail helps them to leap nearly three to four feet into the air, this leap particularly comes in handy to scare off predators, who come quite close to them. They do not curl up into a ball, as believed, but can easily leap and outrun its predator.

Dietary Habits
This animal is both, an omnivore and an insectivore in its dietary habits. They dig erratically with their snouts and claws to loosen soil, and use their long sticky tongues to catch beetles, ants, termites, worm, grubs and caterpillars. They may occasionally supplement their diet with amphibians, small reptiles, fungi, tubers, and carrion, which they eat using their leaf-shaped, peg-like teeth.

Breeding
Armadillos reach sexual maturity by the time they reach one year of age and the female is capable of producing up to 56 young ones over the course of her life. They have a breeding system that stands apart from many other mammals, even of its own class. The mating usually takes place in a burrow from July to August in the Northern Hemisphere and November to January in the Southern Hemisphere. Although, a single egg gets fertilized, implantation is delayed by 3 to 4 months. The gestation period is of four months during which, identical quadruplets are split, with each developing its own placenta, so blood and nutrients are not shared between them. The amazing thing about the nine-banded armadillo is that it will always gives birth to the same gender quadruplets from a single egg. After birth, the quadruplets remain in the burrow with their mother for a period three months, where they living off the mother's milk. Another three to four months are spent foraging with the mother, eventually leaving her after six months to a year.

One of the Texas state symbols, the nine-banded armadillo is listed as 'Least Concern', as they are found abundantly all over Texas. It was hunted for meat, during the depression, however, since it is capable of reproducing every year, the numbers of this animal did not dwindle.