Armadillos

Alex Re

Hello, welcome to on wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re, on this podcast, we bring the wild to you, we take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week. And I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. This is gonna be a really cool episode, because I got the chance to interview Dr. Jim Lowry, who has been studying our animal of interest since the 80s and has even published a book on them. So today, we're traveling to the southern United States and South America to talk about a mammal with the shell, the armadillo.

So as I said in my introduction, you can find armadillos in Central and South America and in the southern United States. And because they have a pretty slow metabolic rate and don't store a lot of fat on their bodies, they like to live in warmer environments. They also usually live in areas that have Sandy or loose soil because they're always digging, and there are around 20 different species of armadillo. The hard outer shell is probably the most prominent feature that armadillos have. And depending on the species, they have a certain number of bands running across their shell. For example, there's a nine banded armadillo, a three banded armadillo and a six banded armadillo and we're going to talk more about their shells when I talk with Jim. Another characteristic that they have that depends on their species is their size. armadillos can range from six inches, which is the size of the pink fairy armadillo, up to five feet long the size of the giant armadillo and some species have been known to live for over 30 years. armadillos have been around for a while and their relatives were absolutely massive. It's thought that an almost seven foot 500 pound armadillo was alive around 10,000 years ago in Florida. Even though they eat mostly insects and larva, armadillos are considered omnivores because they will eat vegetation at times. And its closest relatives are ant eaters, which isn't surprising considering how they eat their food. When they smell their prey underground, they'll start to dig using their claws. And once they've dug deep enough, they use their really long tongue to catch the insects. their tongue is really sticky so the insects can escape. And their tongue has tiny barbs on it. And it's sticky because they have a salivary bladder, which secretes a sticky mucus onto the tongue. armadillos also have different meeting behaviors depending on their species. For example, with the yellow armadillo, the female will actually run away from the males that want to meet with her. Whichever one can catch up to her will be the one that she mates with. And because they're mammals, armadillos give birth to live young. Some species can produce 15 babies at a time. While the nine banded armadillo almost always has four identical offspring. So they're basically having quadruplets every time they reproduce, which is pretty amazing. This is because the four offspring all come from one egg, which is called polyamory Annie. And if you've ever wondered what makes the difference between identical and fraternal twins, it all has to do with the eggs. Identical twins developed from the same egg while fraternal twins develop from two different eggs. Okay, we're gonna take a break, but there's a lot more to discuss. So after the break, you're going to hear my interview with Dr. Jim Lowery. Of course, it's trivia time. Here's your question for the day. What does a snail use the rajala for a moving be feeling things see seeing or D eating? The answer is D eating. They use the ratchet to scrape up food particles. Okay, we're back. Here's my interview with Jim. Hey, Jim, how are you doing today? going great. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast to talk about armadillos. I can't wait to get into it.

Dr. Jim Loughry

I'm happy to be here. And I'll tell you whatever you whenever I can tell you I will tell you.

Alex Re

Could you just tell us a little bit about yourself first and how you became interested in armadillos.

Dr. Jim Loughry

Well that could be a long story. I'll keep it. I'll keep it short. But actually, I went to I did my PhD work on prairie dogs, which would be a good show, you know, prairie dogs are pretty, pretty cool. You want to think about that. But anyway, when I was in grad school, my now wife, we were not married at the time, she was working on armadillos in South Texas, near Corpus Christi. And I would go there to help her. Then when I graduated, I was looking for a job. And I finally want to up at Valdosta State here in South Georgia. And I wanted to work on something that was local, because, you know, to work on prairie dogs, you have to drive halfway across the country so so I thought, well, maybe armadillos and it turns out that armadillos were pretty much an empty niche where nobody had had done a lot of work, especially not a lot of field work. So it just seemed like a good fit. And so we started to work together on that. In the early 1990s. We've been doing it ever since.

Alex Re

That's, that's awesome. And can you talk a little bit about some of the research that you've done on them? We wrote a book. Yeah, I'm sure. I don't want to read.

Dr. Jim Loughry

It's mostly been behavior and ecology stuff. But it's because going into different areas, you know, we've done a lot of population genetic work. I think we probably talk about this later, but armadillos are sort of notorious in, in the, in the Americas, for being the only non human reservoir for leprosy. And so most recently, we've tried to work on that a little bit. But over the years, I've just been about everything. just basic habitat selection, time budget, you know, well, how do they How do they spend their day? You know, they're not, they're not active that long, because they sleep combat 18 hours a day in their burrows?

Alex Re

Oh, really? Yeah.

Dr. Jim Loughry

So lets me know, when they're above ground, what do they do? And turns out, mostly, all we do is try to find food and they don't do much else. And this has been an attempt to try and fill in a lot of gaps in what we know about their basic biology.

Alex Re

Yeah, that's really important because like you said that there hasn't been a lot of research out there. A done on armadillos. So you guys are doing awesome work. So, armadillos are probably known best for their hard outer shell. Can you just explain what that exterior is made out of? And, and what purpose is it serves?

Dr. Jim Loughry

Well, it's actually made up of, I guess, two layers, bony plates that are called osteoderms. That are these little circular structures, and they're, they're adjacent to one another. But then over the top of that, is a layer of keratin, which is same thing as your fingernail, or in a rhino horn for that matter. And so, you know, people tend to think of it like a shell like a turtle shell, it's, it has nothing in common with a turtle shell. It's, it's, it's more of a leathery covering. So that's what it's made of terms of why it's there. That's a good question. Nobody. The intuitive, obvious thing is everybody thinks it's to protect them against predators. There's no data that would confirm that. Really, for example, you know, at least in the US, opossums are about the same size as an armadillo. And there's no, there's no data that suggests that Carmen Delos are less vulnerable to predation and opossums because nobody's looked. But you would think that if that was the case, that armadillos ought to be more protected from predators than opossums are, but nobody knows. But there are a couple of other ideas. It's possible arm Delos evolved in South America and they tend to be found in this dry thorny kind of scrub habitat. So it could be protection against all that thorny vegetation so that they don't get damaged. And then if you look in the fossil record, there are these fossil forms called clip dance that used to let you use their tails to, to beat each other up. And are the current armadillos do the same thing. They beat each other up as well. Oh, really, therapists could have evolved simply to be protective, covering against attacks from other armadillos. But at this point, you know, these these are all possibilities. Nobody knows. Which is the most likely

Alex Re

Oh, that's really interesting. So do they have speaking of protection from predators? Do they have any natural predators?

Dr. Jim Loughry

Yeah. Hello, it depends on age, you know, baby armadillo. Most babies, they're vulnerable to lots of things because they're small and stupid. They can be killed by all kinds of things, but an adult armadillo I should back up and probably preface this by saying, you know, most of what I'm most of my experiences with the nine banded armadillos, which are found in the United States, okay. But there are, there are 20 more species of armadillos that are found in Central and South America. And things are different with some of those species. So you can't say that, you know, everything applies to, to all these things. But as far as this, the nine men that are middle that I'm most familiar with, for an adult armadillo, lift the big predators would be things like alligators. Well, in South America jaguars to be a problem. Probably hit at least in the US, the biggest predator is probably human beings, because we run over them all the time. And we kill them because they're being passed. But But any kind of big dogs can kill an armadillo there are there are different kinds of large animals that can manage to kill an adult. The juveniles are more vulnerable to a wider array of things. But generally, once if you if an armadillo can get to be an adult, then it's it's fairly I don't want to say invulnerable, but it's it's, it's pretty secure. It's not like it's, it's living on the edge.

Alex Re

Well, that's good. And I think it's pretty safe to say that a lot of animals biggest threats are our humans probably. And we could talk about that later, too. So also, another feature about them is that they have long pointed noses. Do they have a good sense of smell and do they have any other senses that they rely on?

Dr. Jim Loughry

Well, armadillos have most terminals have very poor vision. Certainly the nine men in Urbandale is in or near us. They're not getting they're mostly nocturnal. They have very poor visions. So at best, they probably see shadows. So the two senses that they really rely on are hearing and smell. They're pretty. They're pretty sensitive to sound. If you're trying to catch an armadillo and you make noise, it's just gonna run off. And if you're upwind of one and it smells, you it's gonna run off as well. So those are the probably the two senses they rely on most. But the length of the nose doesn't have as much to do with that as how they feel.

Alex Re

Oh, okay. That's, that's interesting. So, can you talk a little bit about how they dig their burrows? Because they spend most of their time there.

Dr. Jim Loughry

They do. You know, varies by species, but typically they spend for example with nine men and armadillos the average is about pay spend about 18 hours a day, and there were only six hours above ground looking. So the borough is an important thing. And they do dig down. Although, there again, you know, it gets into the same issue with diversity that there are some species in South America that really don't take burrows or if they do dig on the sisters, shallow pit, and then they they spend the night there the day there which, whichever it happens to be for their activity, rhythm. And then they go and dig another one the next day with the nine banded armadillos that we have in the US. They, they do more extensive burrows I when I say extensive, it's not it's not that elaborate, you know, they dig a shallow tunnel that that extends down a few feet or so. And then they have an enlarged area where they have a NASS, they, they collect grass and dried leaves, and they create a nest. And sometimes there'll be a passage off the back of that. If they get disturbed. You know, like, for example, we've tried to, to catch armadillos at random burrow by trying to pull them out. If we couldn't do that, they would sometimes they would go down that back passageway to actually dig themselves up to the surface a few feet away. And sometimes we would be clever enough to see that they were doing that and catch them someday. You know, all armadillos evolved in South America, and mostly in the tropics. And so they're adapted to a fairly hot climate. And so if you have armadillos, like the ones we have in the US, where you get into seasons of the year where it's it's not as warm, then you have to have a means of adapting to them. I guess getting back I usually you asked about the character pace before and what it's made of. But one of the other things about the character pace is that this is kind of technical, physiological stuff, but it has what's called high thermal conductance. So it what all that means is that releases heat really well. So armadillos are adaptive to, to release he conserving heat is not something they do. And they have a low really low metabolic rate, much lower than in most mammals that their body size. So it seems like you know, if you look at their ecological lifestyle, they were, they're adapted to live in these warm habitats where our conservative heat is not usually an issue that what you want to do is really see. But they're not the borough's not about keeping them extremely, it's not like a hibernating mammal where they dig down really deep, and keep themselves really warm. It's just about being able to keep slightly warmer than the surrounding environment.

Alex Re

That's cool that they have that strategy to stay warm when their bodies are pretty much tele are pretty much built to release IE instead of keep it in. So that's really cool. So a lot of animals that burrow usually burrow with other individuals are are armadillos solitary, or are they more social animals?

Dr. Jim Loughry

No, almost. I cannot think of a species that is social there. They're largely solitary, except during the breeding season. But even there, it's fairly minimal. And then you'll have after a female gives birth, shall share the barrel with her, her offspring for a variable amount of time, typically, maybe a couple of months. They're largely unknown. In fact, even when a female gives birth and has a litter, at least for the nightmare that armadillos in the United States, a lot of times once the younger are weaned, so they're sort of semi independent. They'll come up earlier in the day and start to forage while the mother is still in the barrel, so there's not a lot of interaction there. If you wanted to study social behavior, armadillos be a terrible choice. There's, there's not a lot going on here.

Alex Re

That's cool. And so have you done any research into how smart they are compared to other mammals or

Dr. Jim Loughry

conventional wisdom? The conventional wisdom is that armadillos are dumb. And there may be some truth to that. But, you know, the flip side of that is that they're still here for millions of years. So apparently, they're smart enough to do what they got to do. And that's true for any species that you animals have evolved to be able to solve the problems that they are confronted with. Anyway, I guess to get back to your original question, no, we have not done anything to try and test their their intelligence. I'm not even sure how we would do that.

Alex Re

Yeah, I can imagine that's not an easy task. And you know what, no matter how dumb they are, they're, they're well adapted their to their environment. So that's what matters. Every year, right, exactly. So they do what they have to do. Yep. And speaking of them being in an ecosystem, what role do armadillos play in their ecosystem?

Dr. Jim Loughry

Well, very good. sort of depends on the species. But people have made the case recently that their ecosystem engineers, because they're burrowing has impacts on soil dynamics. And the borough's themselves. You know, you asked about the borough's earlier, the boroughs are used by an incredible number of species. So the burros are used by all kinds of other species. And so that's a big impact. You know, our windows, generally speaking, ate a lot of insects, beetles, and those kinds of things. And so they play a role in regulating or controlling those kinds of species in the habitat. So they, you know, they have a substantial impact on the habitats that they occur in. And so you know, whether the, you know, whether the most important or not, that's how do you decide that, but yeah, they're very, they're very impactful on a system that they're found.

Alex Re

That's really cool. And so a lot of animals rely on them and their burrows to survive, which is really pretty cool. So kind of going off of that question, what are some of the challenges that armadillos are facing right now?

Dr. Jim Loughry

Well, it's mostly again in South America with the other species, the nine vendor armadillos in the US, they get persecuted as pass. But beyond that, there's not a whole lot. That seems to be a problem. But in South America, Central America, the two biggest issues that ever you know, when you talk about NATO species, the first two things you always hear about our habitat destruction. Where you have land is being converted into agriculture, you have fragmentation of the habitats. Those kinds of things and then the other big one is human impacts. armored, armadillos are hunted for food and a lot of Latin America. Especially the not surprisingly, the bigger spaces like a giant armadillo. That's a lot of food for somebody. So. So those are prized items. And so there's that there's wildlife trade, which you wouldn't think would be a big deal. But apparently some people want to keep these things as pets, for what reason? And so, those are the two big, you know, everything can all relates back to what we're doing to them, but it's either what we're doing to their habitats, or what we're doing to them directly.

Alex Re

Absolutely. It's, and it's sad that we're kind of destroying their habitats. And I don't know why people are trying to get these animals as pets. That doesn't make much sense. They're not meant to be pets.

Dr. Jim Loughry

It's a mystery to me the pet thing, I don't care because they're, they're terrible. They are not social. There's no point having

Alex Re

Absolutely. anybody watching this, don't do that. That's stupid. Number one thing to take away don't don't have an armor do nothing else.

And this is gonna be my last question. So is there anything that the average person can do to help armadillos?

Dr. Jim Loughry

I would say two things. For the nine men, wherever those that are in the United States, the best thing you can do is just leave them alone. Leave them be they are a reservoir for leprosy. So messing with them is not a good idea for that reason. But they're doing well. They don't need a lot of intervention from from human beings just let them be. But now when we talk about the the other 20 some species that are in Latin America, they, they need more help. And so I will make a plug here. I think you know about this because I found me. But if if you wanted to help armadillos in general, not just the nine men and armadillos in the US you should go to the the IUCN and eater slough and armadillos specialist group web page, which is a mouthful, so I actually I printed it out. So you can do this. Go there.

Alex Re

Okay, great. I'll read it off right now. Okay, it's XENARTHRAN s.org.

Dr. Jim Loughry

They have all the information you would need to put to help these other spaces. You should go through through the specialist group website, because they they know they have the best means of being able to make something.

Alex Re

Absolutely everybody should go check that out. And generally, that's actually a good website. Yeah. And Jim, thank you so much for coming on talking all about armadillos. I learned so much. And just Thanks. Thanks for answering all my questions. I'm happy to do it. No problem. I'm so glad that Jim was able to talk with us about armadillos and I hope you all learned as much as I did. Although armadillos aren't endangered. Some species are vulnerable and they definitely face a lot of challenges. If you want to help out armadillos, here are a few organizations that are doing great work to support their conservation. The Pittsburgh zoo is assisting with a project called the giant armadillo conservation project. There's also the National Wildlife Federation and the world animal foundation. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of the armadillo. You can find the sources that we used for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference@www.on wildlife.org Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday to learn about a new animal and that's on wildlife

Jess Avellino

You've been listening to on wildlife with Alex Re brought to you every Wednesday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai