Animal · United States, Mexico, Brazil
Nine-banded armadillo
Dasypus novemcinctus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The nine-banded armadillo is a small mammal covered in a tough, bony armour shell, found from the southern United States down through South America. It digs burrows with strong, clawed feet.
Picture credit: Enrique González (CC BY 4.0) · Enrique González (CC BY 4.0) · Faunaram (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the nine-banded armadillo live?
Home: Grasslands, forests and scrub from the southern United States to South America.
In the wild you find it in: United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Costa Rica.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures up to 60 cm long, plus a 40 cm tail. It weighs about 6 kilograms. On the menu: insects.
The story behind it
An armadillo's armour is made of hardened skin plates called scutes, similar material to fingernails, and its name comes from the Spanish word for 'little armoured one'. Despite the tough shell, only a few armadillo species can actually roll into a complete ball; most, including the nine-banded armadillo, prefer to run or dig to escape danger. It has an excellent sense of smell and can sniff out insects buried up to 20 cm underground. Curiously, nine-banded armadillo mothers almost always give birth to four identical babies from a single egg. Armadillos are expanding their range northward as winters grow milder, and their numbers remain healthy overall.
Find it on the globe
Nine-banded armadillo is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Can armadillos roll into a ball?
Only a few armadillo species, like the three-banded armadillo, can roll into a complete ball. The nine-banded armadillo cannot fully curl up and instead relies on running fast or diving into a burrow to escape danger.
Why does an armadillo have four identical babies?
A nine-banded armadillo's single fertilised egg almost always splits into four identical embryos, so it nearly always gives birth to four babies of the same sex that look exactly alike. Scientists are still not entirely sure why this happens.
What do armadillos eat?
Armadillos mainly eat insects like ants, termites and grubs, which they dig up or sniff out from the soil using their strong claws and keen sense of smell. They rarely eat plants and are mostly active at night.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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