Armadillos: Fact or Fiction?

The three-banded armadillo can roll into a ball. It is the ONLY armadillo that can do this.

Three-Banded Armadillos only live in Central

and eastern Bolivia, the

Mato Grasso of central Brazil,

Chaco region of Paraguay,

northern and central

Argentina.

Nine-Banded Armadillos

Foreprint about 1 3/4" long, 1 5/8" wide; hindprint more than 2" long, 1 5/8" wide.

Track pattern

South-central and southeastern United States

Armadillos are not blind, but they do have poor eyesight. They rely on their ears and noses more than their eyes to detect food or predators. (When your food is never farther away than the end of your tongue, you don’t really need spectacular vision to find it, do you?) If you are close to an armadillo, and you stay quiet and stand still, the chances of it not noticing you are there are fairly good.

Nine-banded armadillos always give birth to four identical young — the only mammal known to do so. There are

either four females or four males.

Armadillos like to swim, and they are very good at it. They can even go quite a distance underwater, walking along the bottom of streams and ponds. They can hold their breath for four to six minutes at a time.

Like most insect eating mammals, armadillos have a very long, sticky tongue to slurp up bugs as quickly as possible. They also are equipped with strong claws to tear open ant nests.

Their cousins, the anteaters, have very similar tongues and claws.

This armadillo could have been a model for J. D. Brooks

Illustrator:

S. G. Brooks

Author:

Jackie Hopkins

Cover

Sketch

What parts are true?

What story is this based on?

Author Helen Ketteman

Miss Billie

The Desert

Jan Brett did a lot of research about armadillos when she was writing and illustrating this book.

Author/Illustrator Jan Brett

Check out the boots!

Check the cover!

Go figure!

Fiction and Non-Fiction Books about Armadillos

E

Ket

E

Che

E

Bei

599.3

Lei

E

Rad

E

Bre

E

Hop

http://www.msu.edu/user/nixonjos/armadillo/

http://www.armadillies.com/