Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Nine-banded ar­madil­los are found in South, Cen­tral, and North Amer­ica, and have the largest range of any ex­tant species of ar­madillo, from Ar­gentina and Uruguay, through Cen­tral Amer­ica and into the south­ern United States. As early as 1850, nine-banded ar­madil­los were found no fur­ther north than Texas. Be­gin­ning in the late 19th cen­tury, they grad­u­ally ex­panded their range to the north­east. They have been spot­ted as far east as Florida and are com­mon as far north as Mis­souri. In 2000, the dead body of a nine-banded ar­madillo was dis­cov­ered in cen­tral Illi­nois. Mi­gra­tion and es­tab­lish­ment of pop­u­la­tions north­ward is likely lim­ited by the sever­ity of cold, win­ter weather, for which the species does not have a strong tol­er­ance. How­ever, if win­ter sea­sons be­come milder, nine-banded ar­madil­los may con­tinue their mi­gra­tion north­ward. They can sur­vive short pe­ri­ods of se­vere cold by re­main­ing in a bur­row for days at a time. An­other fac­tor that has lim­ited their mi­gra­tion west­ward is de­pen­dence on rain­fall or other sources of water. For this rea­son, nine-banded ar­madil­los have not mi­grated into the arid, desert re­gions of New Mex­ico and other west­ern states. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mac­don­ald, 1984; Van Dee­len, et al., 2002; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

In­creas­ing human pop­u­la­tions and de­vel­op­ment of trans­porta­tion routes are thought to help rather than hin­der the ge­o­graphic ex­pan­sion of nine-banded ar­madil­los. The con­struc­tion of roads and bridges have both fa­cil­i­tated human in­tro­duc­tion of nine-banded ar­madil­los into new areas, as well as pro­vided a means for wild nine-banded ar­madil­los to move across the wide wa­ter­ways and other nat­ural ob­sta­cles that would had pre­vi­ously pre­vented their ex­pan­sion. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are able swim­mers due to their abil­ity to hold air in their di­ges­tive tract, in­creas­ing buoy­ancy; they are also able to walk along river bot­toms as a re­sult of their abil­ity to main­tain a large oxy­gen debt. Even so, they do not read­ily cross large bod­ies of water. Fur­ther, human ac­tiv­i­ties have caused a de­cline in many nat­ural preda­tors of North Amer­i­can nine-banded ar­madil­los. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Tal­mage, 1954; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • introduced
  • native
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Nine-banded ar­madil­los most often in­habit for­est and scrub-brush areas in trop­i­cal and tem­per­ate re­gions. They are also found in grass­lands and sa­vanna re­gions around woody areas, but much pre­fer forests over grass­lands be­cause they for­age in for­est lit­ter for small in­ver­te­brates. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are not often found in arid re­gions; they thrive es­pe­cially in ri­par­ian habi­tats or areas with a suf­fi­cient amount of water and/or at least 38 cm of rain an­nu­ally. This as­so­ci­a­tion with water could be due the in­creased num­ber of avail­able food sources in wet­ter areas or to the softer soil con­di­tions, mak­ing dig­ging and bur­row­ing eas­ier. As long as suf­fi­cient food and water sup­plies are avail­able, nine-banded ar­madil­los are very adapt­able to dif­fer­ent habi­tats. They have been ob­served near swampy or marshy re­gions as well, but do not com­monly in­habit them. ("Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus", 2008; Stan­gle, 1994; Tal­mage, 1954; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

Tem­per­a­ture is also an im­por­tant fac­tor in choice of habi­tat. Nine-banded ar­madil­los begin to shiver at tem­per­a­tures below 22°C, but the warmth of the bur­row al­lows an ar­madillo to in­habit tem­per­ate areas dur­ing milder win­ters. At pre­sent, nine-banded ar­madil­los are not com­mon in any re­gions in which more than 24 freeze-over days occur an­nu­ally or the av­er­age Jan­u­ary tem­per­a­ture drops below -2°C. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are also more pop­u­lous in low-ly­ing lands, often around sea-level. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Tal­mage, 1954; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

The habi­tat of nine-banded ar­madil­los is not lim­ited by human pres­ence. They do not often in­habit areas of dense human pop­u­la­tion, but the north­east­ern ex­pan­sion of nine-banded ar­madil­los in the United States seems to be linked to man-made roads, bridges, rail­roads and other travel routes. This sug­gests that ar­madil­los use human de­vel­op­ments to their ad­van­tage. Their co­ex­is­tence with hu­mans is often ev­i­dent by the pres­ence of nine-banded ar­madillo road­kill along these routes. (Tal­mage, 1954; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

Within the forests, grass­lands, and shrub­lands that nine-banded ar­madil­los in­habit, they make their homes in un­der­ground bur­rows. Bur­rows vary in size, but can be up to 5 m long and 2 m deep. Nine-banded ar­madil­los may bring some grasses and leaves in­side their bur­row and they often try to hide the en­trance by plac­ing plant de­bris around it. A nine-banded ar­madillo may have up to 12 den sites, but the av­er­age is 4 or 5. A male and fe­male may share these bur­rows dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, but usu­ally a bur­row is only shared by a fe­male and her young or by young sib­lings. (Mac­don­ald, 1984; Stan­gle, 1994)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural
• riparian

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The outer body of Nine-banded ar­madil­los are un­mis­tak­able. Like many other ar­madil­los, Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus is cov­ered by an outer body armor made up of bony plates cov­ered in a leath­ery ker­ati­nous skin. These scales (os­teo­derms) pro­vide a hard but flex­i­ble cov­er­ing. The os­teo­derms are typ­i­cally rec­tan­gu­lar or pen­tag­o­nal in shape and are de­vel­oped later than the rest of the skele­ton. The armor com­prises about 16% of body weight and is di­vided into three main areas of cov­er­age on the body: a pelvic shield, a shield on the shoul­der re­gion, and the char­ac­ter­is­tic bands of the back. Typ­i­cally, nine-banded ar­madil­los have 9 vis­i­ble bands, but this num­ber may vary from 8 to 11. Each band is sep­a­rated by a thin epi­der­mal layer and hairs. Scales grow con­tin­u­ously and wear, but are never fully shed. The av­er­age body length is .752 m. The tail av­er­ages about 0.3 m long and is cov­ered by 12 to 15 rings of scales. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mac­don­ald, 1984; Stan­gle, 1994; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

The head is par­tially cov­ered in these bony/ker­ati­nous scales, but the ears lack them. In­stead, ears are hair­less and cov­ered in a rough, bumpy skin. The un­der­side also lacks any ar­mored pro­tec­tion and is of a paler color, gen­er­ally ap­pear­ing slightly yel­low. The long snout is much softer and pink­ish in color, ap­pear­ing al­most pig-like with it nar­row, ta­pered shape. The face, neck, and un­der­side are cov­ered in small clus­ters of hair. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Stan­gle, 1994)

Nine-banded ar­madil­los have short legs with 4 toes on the fore­foot and 5 toes on the hind­foot; all dig­its have strong claws, and the mid­dle claws are largest of all. The skull lacks os­si­fied au­di­tory bul­lae. It is dorso-ven­trally flat­tened and has a very dis­tinct den­ti­tion. The den­tary is v-shaped and the total tooth num­ber ranges from 28 to 32 (8/8). Teeth are sim­ple, small and cylin­dri­cal (peg-like). They lack enamel and con­tinue to grow through­out the an­i­mal's life­time. Nine-banded ar­madil­los pos­sess long, sticky tongues, which they use in for­ag­ing for in­sects. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mac­don­ald, 1984; Stan­gle, 1994)

Sex­ual di­mor­phism in nine-banded ar­madil­los is minor with males weigh­ing slightly more than fe­males (the av­er­age male weighs 5.5 to 7.7 kg, while the av­er­age fe­male weighs 3.6 to 6.0 kg). Nine-banded ar­madil­los main­tain a low body tem­per­a­ture, usu­ally rang­ing from 30° to 35° C. Their basal meta­bolic rate is also low given their mass (384.4 kJ/day). (Atansanov, 2007; Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Pep­pler and Stone, 1981)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Range mass

  3.6 to 7.7 kg

  7.93 to 16.96 lb

• Average mass

  5.5 kg

  12.11 lb

• Range length

  .615 to .800 m

  2.02 to 2.62 ft

• Average length

  .752 m

  2.47 ft

• Average basal metabolic rate

  4.655 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Dur­ing the sum­mer breed­ing sea­son, nine-banded ar­madil­los are often seen pair­ing. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are typ­i­cally soli­tary an­i­mals, so a male and fe­male main­tain­ing close prox­im­ity to one an­other is un­usual. Dur­ing pair­ing, the male re­mains within a few me­ters of, and oc­ca­sion­ally in­ter­acts with, the fe­male as the two for­age. Other be­hav­iors ac­com­pany the pair­ing, in­clud­ing dor­sal touches, tail wag­ging, tail lift­ing by the fe­male (which ex­poses the gen­i­talia), and sniff­ing and vig­i­lance by the males, which al­lows them to main­tain their prox­im­ity. In some in­stances, ar­madillo pairs have been ob­served shar­ing a bur­row dur­ing pair­ing/breed­ing sea­son. (Mc­Do­nough, 1997; Stan­gle, 1994)

It is thought that a male main­tains this close prox­im­ity to the fe­male in order to claim and pro­tect her from other males. Usu­ally only males who have an ex­clu­sive home range pair. In some in­stances, male on male ag­gres­sion takes place as a male pro­tects his rights to a fe­male. It is likely that main­tain­ing such close prox­im­ity al­lows the male to de­ter­mine when the fe­male is re­cep­tive. Fe­males con­stantly ap­pear to re­treat from males, which may be an ef­fort to pre­vent the male from keep­ing too close be­fore she is ready to mate. The se­cre­tions by the anal glands may have a scent that changes as a fe­male be­comes ready to ovu­late. Some ob­ser­va­tional stud­ies have shown that within a given breed­ing sea­son, nine-banded ar­madil­los are polyg­nous with re­spect to pair­ing, how­ever, pair­ing may not lead to cop­u­la­tion. This is a topic still under study. (Loughry, et al., 1998; Mc­Do­nough, 1997)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Fe­males have a large ex­ter­nal cli­toris, while males lack an ex­ter­nal scro­tum and testes are in­ter­nal. The fe­male re­pro­duc­tive tract in­cludes a sim­plex uterus and paired ovaries and oviducts. Most fe­males ovu­late once a year, usu­ally in early sum­mer (June to July in the north­ern hemi­sphere, No­vem­ber to De­cem­ber in the south­ern hemi­sphere). Cop­u­la­tion oc­curs dur­ing this time of year, with the fe­male po­si­tioned on her back. ("Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus", 2008; Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Stan­gle, 1994)

Dur­ing con­cep­tion, only a sin­gle ovum is fer­til­ized. The blas­to­cyst stays in the uterus for about 14 weeks be­fore im­plan­ta­tion. Dur­ing this time, flu­ids from the uteran lin­ing keep the blas­to­cyst lu­bri­cated and pro­vide nu­tri­ents. Nine-banded ar­madillo re­pro­duc­tion in­volves monozy­gotic poly­em­bry­ony. That is, when a blas­to­cyst fi­nally im­plants in the wall of the uterus, it buds into 4 iden­ti­cal em­bryos. Every em­bryo de­vel­ops its own am­ni­otic cav­ity. This em­bry­onic process al­most al­ways re­sults in the birth of four iden­ti­cal quadru­plets. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982)

The quadru­plets are often born in early spring, after about a 4 month ges­ta­tion pe­riod. De­layed im­plan­ta­tion al­lows birthing to hap­pen dur­ing the spring, when tem­per­a­tures are much warmer and food is abun­dant. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mac­don­ald, 1984)

Young are born in an ad­vanced state of de­vel­op­ment, closely re­sem­bling their adult coun­ter­parts but smaller in size. The eyes open quickly, but their leath­ery skin does not harden into its char­ac­ter­is­tic armor for a few weeks. Young of both sexes may begin breed­ing as early as the sum­mer fol­low­ing their birth, but they may not reach full sex­ual ma­tu­rity until the age of 2 years. Full de­vel­op­ment and ma­tu­rity is at­tained by the age of 3 or 4 years. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mac­don­ald, 1984; Stan­gle, 1994)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous
• delayed implantation

• Breeding interval

  Nine-banded armadillos breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs in early summer (June to July for northern hemisphere, November to December for southern hemisphere).

• Range number of offspring

  4 (high)

• Average number of offspring

  4

• Average number of offspring

  4

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  4 months

• Average gestation period

  133 days

  AnAge

• Average weaning age

  2-3 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 to 2 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  365 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 to 2 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  365 days

  AnAge

Young are typ­i­cally born in spring but do not leave their bur­rows until late spring or early sum­mer, after at least a few weeks. When they emerge, they are ready to begin for­ag­ing with their mother. The mother may pro­vide milk for up to 2 to 3 months be­fore wean­ing. After wean­ing the young may re­main with their mother for a few ad­di­tional months, but no sig­nif­i­cant long term care or par­ent-off­spring re­la­tion­ship is known. A young nine-banded ar­madillo may share a bur­row and for­ag­ing areas with its sib­lings dur­ing its first sum­mer and early fall. ("Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus", 2008; Loughry and Mc­Do­nough, 1994; Stan­gle, 1994)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Re­ported life ex­pectan­cies of nine-banded ar­madil­los range from as low as 7 to 8 years to more than 20 years. At least one nine-banded ar­madillo in cap­tiv­ity reached 23 years of age. Ju­ve­niles have a higher mor­tal­ity rate than adults. (Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 1997; Mc­Do­nough, 1997; Pep­pler and Stone, 1981; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

The fac­tors in­flu­enc­ing longevity of nine-banded ar­madil­los in­clude cli­mate, pre­da­tion, and dis­ease. Be­cause this species does not have a sig­nif­i­cant amount of hair or body fat, it does not cope well with cold tem­per­a­tures. A large adult male can sur­vive no longer than 10 days at 0° C with­out starv­ing. The larger the an­i­mal, the more likely it will sur­vive colder tem­per­a­tures. Other en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, such as drought, also have an im­pact on nine-banded ar­madillo mor­tal­ity. In one area that ex­pe­ri­enced a se­vere drought, the nine-banded ar­madillo pop­u­la­tion com­pletely dis­ap­peared due to death or mi­gra­tion (Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 1997). (Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 2008; Stan­gle, 1994; Taul­man and Rob­bins, 1996)

Pre­da­tion and death by hu­mans, both pur­pose­ful and ac­ci­den­tal, are other causes of mor­tal­ity. A ju­ve­nile is more likely to be killed by a preda­tor in the wild than is an adult due to its weaker phys­i­cal state and softer armor. (Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 1997; Mc­Do­nough, 1997)

Dis­ease can be an im­por­tant con­trib­u­tor to nine-banded ar­madillo mor­tal­ity; lep­rosy, in par­tic­u­lar, has an im­por­tant im­pact. In one pop­u­la­tion of nine-banded ar­madil­los, 30% of adults were found to have the bac­terium as­so­ci­ated with the dis­ease, while 17% had the an­ti­bod­ies, in­di­cat­ing pre­vi­ous ex­po­sure.

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  23+ (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  7 to 20+ years

Be­hav­ior

Nine-banded ar­madil­los are noc­tur­nal or cre­pus­cu­lar but for­age ear­lier in the day dur­ing cold or cloudy pe­ri­ods. They do not hi­ber­nate, but in the north­ern part of their dis­tri­b­u­tion, nine-banded ar­madil­los are more ac­tive dur­ing sum­mer months. They cross streams or rivers by swim­ming or sim­ply walk­ing across the bot­tom. An ar­madillo can ac­cu­mu­late a large oxy­gen debt and hold its breath for up to 6 min­utes. By swal­low­ing air, the an­i­mal can also reg­u­late its buoy­ancy to some de­gree. Ar­madil­los tire quickly, how­ever, and can­not cross wide bod­ies of water. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Moeller, 1990; Schmidly and William, 1994; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

Nine-banded ar­madil­los dig bur­rows by loos­en­ing soil with their noses and fore­limbs and then kick the soil away with their hind limbs. A bur­row may have sev­eral en­trances, but there is a main en­trance that the an­i­mal pref­er­en­tially uses. Bur­rows are be­tween 1 and 5 m in length and lo­cated a few cm to 2 m below ground. Nine-banded ar­madil­los may have mul­ti­ple bur­rows, in­clud­ing one for nest­ing and sev­eral shal­lower ones used as food traps. Nine-banded ar­madil­los also use nat­u­rally oc­cur­ring above-ground crevices as nest­ing sites. The an­i­mals carry nest­ing ma­te­ri­als, such as twigs and leaves, by clutch­ing items to them­selves with their fore­limbs and hop­ping bipedally. Rot­ting ma­te­ri­als may be re­moved after heavy rain­fall. Aside from mat­ing pairs or a mother with a very young lit­ter, nine-banded ar­madil­los typ­i­cally do not share bur­rows. How­ever, in­ci­dences of non-re­lated adults shar­ing a nest have been doc­u­mented in cold weather, and it is spec­u­lated that this may be a way for these ar­madil­los to ther­moreg­u­late at the north­ern lim­its of their dis­tri­b­u­tion. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 2008; Moeller, 1990; Schmidly and William, 1994; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

Nine-banded ar­madil­los are rarely ag­gres­sive to­ward one an­other, al­though a preg­nant or nurs­ing mother may be un­usu­ally ag­gres­sive, even to­ward her own older off­spring. Dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son, older males oc­ca­sion­ally ex­hibit ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior to­ward younger males. Ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior, such as kick­ing or chas­ing, usu­ally does not re­sult in se­ri­ous in­jury. When ag­i­tated by a per­ceived threat, nine-banded ar­madil­los usu­ally freeze. They can also jump up straight in the air and sprint over short dis­tances. A fright­ened nine-banded ar­madillo usu­ally seeks a bur­row, and once in­side, arches its back and braces its feet so that it is dif­fi­cult to re­move. If a bur­row is not nearby, the an­i­mal may seek dense thorny un­der­brush, as it is rel­a­tively pro­tected by its tough ex­te­rior. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 2008; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

While nine-banded ar­madil­los curl up, they are not ca­pa­ble of curl­ing it­self into a per­fect ball like other species, such as three-banded ar­madil­los. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary
• territorial

• Range territory size

  0.0063 to 0.21 km^2

Home Range

Es­ti­mates for the home range size of nine-banded ar­madillo range from 0.63 to 20.1 hectares. This vari­a­tion in size is at­trib­ut­able to phys­i­cal con­di­tions of the sur­round­ing land, such as soil type and water avail­abil­ity. Home range size is also be­lieved to in­crease with age. Fe­male and male home ranges tend to be of sim­i­lar size, al­though adult males tol­er­ate much less over­lap. Adults of both sexes may share home ranges with ju­ve­niles and mem­bers of the op­po­site sex. A small num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als are tran­sient. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Mc­Do­nough and Loughry, 2008)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Ol­fac­tion is the pri­mary mode of per­cep­tion used by nine-banded ar­madil­los. Ol­fac­tion is es­sen­tial while for­ag­ing. Nine-banded ar­madil­los travel with their nose just above the ground and can smell in­ver­te­brates up to 20 cm below the sur­face. They can also stand bipedally, brac­ing them­selves with their tail and sniff the air to lo­cate food. Smell may also be im­por­tant for nine-banded ar­madil­los to ori­ent them­selves and rec­og­nize fa­mil­iar places, al­though there is no ev­i­dence that they em­ploy scent trails. The an­i­mals’ re­liance on scent is re­flected by cor­re­spond­ing de­vel­op­ment in their fore­brains. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Moeller, 1990)

Nine-banded ar­madil­los also have a good sense of hear­ing, which the an­i­mals use in avoid­ing pre­da­tion or other sources of po­ten­tial dan­ger. Mat­ing pairs also com­mu­ni­cate with a “chuck­ing” sound. Nine-banded ar­madil­los have a poor sense of vi­sion, which is use­less ex­cept at close dis­tances, and they are thought to have a poor sense of touch. Dasy­po­di­dae species have fewer taste buds than other mam­mals, so it is likely that nine-banded ar­madil­los have a poor sense of taste as well. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Moeller, 1990)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Nine-banded ar­madil­los are gen­er­al­ist, op­por­tunis­tic feed­ers. Al­most 500 sep­a­rate food items make up their diet, and over ninety per­cent of their diet (by vol­ume) is made up of an­i­mal mat­ter. Adult and lar­val bee­tles may be the largest com­po­nent, but nine-banded ar­madil­los also feed on ter­mites, mil­li­pedes, cen­tipedes, ants, grasshop­pers, arach­nids, earth­worms, and sev­eral other in­sects and ter­res­trial in­ver­te­brates. After prey­ing on ant hills, nine-banded ar­madil­los often roll around vig­or­ously, pre­sum­ably to re­move ants from them­selves. Nine-banded ar­madil­los also feed on small rep­tiles and am­phib­ians, es­pe­cially in the win­ter when these an­i­mals are more slug­gish. They oc­ca­sion­ally take baby mam­mals or bird eggs. Less than ten per­cent of their diet is made up of plant mat­ter, such as fruit, seeds, and fungi. Dirt, twigs, tree bark, and other in­di­gestible ma­te­ri­als have been found in their stom­achs, but the in­ges­tion of such ma­te­ri­als is prob­a­bly ac­ci­den­tal. Nine-banded ar­madil­los oc­ca­sion­ally eat car­rion, but the an­i­mal is prob­a­bly more in­ter­ested in the mag­gots that in­habit corpses than the meat it­self. Nine-banded ar­madil­los do not chew small prey, but they do chew large in­ver­te­brates, ver­te­brate an­i­mal mat­ter, and plant mat­ter. While for­ag­ing, nine-banded ar­madil­los rely pri­mar­ily on their sense of smell to lo­cate food items, and they often visit shal­low bur­rows in search of trapped in­ver­te­brates. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Schmidly and William, 1994; Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Schmidly and William, 1994)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • vermivore
  • scavenger
• omnivore
• mycophage

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• eggs
• carrion
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

• Other Foods
• fungus

Pre­da­tion

Nine-banded ar­madil­los have many nat­ural preda­tors, in­clud­ing pumas, maned wolves, coy­otes, black bears, red wolves, jaguars, al­li­ga­tors, bob­cats, and rap­tors, which prey on baby nine-banded ar­madil­los. It is be­lieved that the de­cline of many nat­ural preda­tor pop­u­la­tions in North Amer­ica has aided in the rapid north­ern ex­pan­sion of this species. Be­cause of their softer cara­pace, ju­ve­niles are more sus­cep­ti­ble to pre­da­tion than are adults, and this is re­flected in their be­hav­ior. Young nine-banded ar­madil­los tend to for­age ear­lier in the day and are more wary of human ap­proach than are adults. Nine-banded ar­madil­los can jump straight in the air and sprint over short dis­tances to avoid preda­tors, and often flee to the cover of dense, thorny un­der­brush or nearby bur­rows. The ta­pered de­sign of their tails makes them dif­fi­cult to grasp and, once in­side a bur­row, nine-banded ar­madil­los arch their backs and brace them­selves against pos­si­ble re­moval. Hu­mans are also preda­tors to nine-banded ar­madil­los, both in­ten­tion­ally and ac­ci­den­tally. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are hunted in many rural areas for their meat and skin, while auto ac­ci­dents claim the lives of thou­sands of in­di­vid­u­als each year. (Moeller, 1990; Weckel, et al., 2006; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999; Moeller, 1990; Weckel, et al., 2006; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999; Moeller, 1990; Weckel, et al., 2006; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999; Moeller, 1990; Weckel, et al., 2006; Wil­son and Ruff, 1999)

• Known Predators

  • pumas (Puma concolor)
  • maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus)
  • coyotes (Canis latrans)
  • red wolves (Canis rufus)
  • American black bears (Ursus americanus)
  • jaguars (Panthera onca)
  • American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis)
  • humans (Homo sapiens)
  • bobcats (Lynx rufus)
  • raptors (Accipitridae)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ar­madil­los are scav­engers and con­sumers of many kinds of in­ver­te­brates. They have a rel­a­tively lower body tem­per­a­ture than other mam­mals and their cara­pace makes them poor ther­moreg­u­la­tors. These char­ac­ter­is­tics re­sult in a poor im­mune sys­tem. Thus, nine-banded ar­madil­los are host to a va­ri­ety of bac­te­r­ial and pro­to­zoan par­a­sites, per­haps the most no­table being My­cobac­terium lep­rae, the bac­terium re­spon­si­ble for lep­rosy. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are also as­so­ci­ated with some par­a­sitic ticks, such as Am­bly­omma au­ric­u­lar­ium. Be­cause they in­habit damp, dirt-filled en­vi­ron­ments, nine-banded ar­madil­los har­bor sev­eral species of fungi, some of which are re­spon­si­ble for human dis­eases. It is un­clear whether these fungi func­tion as com­men­sal­ists or par­a­sites. For ex­am­ple, nine-banded ar­madil­los in­fected with the fun­gus, Para­coc­cid­iodies brasilien­sis, which causes a my­co­sis in hu­mans, ap­pear healthy. Yet the fun­gus was de­tected in the an­i­mals’ lymph nodes, in­di­cat­ing ill­ness. (Bagagli and De Moraes Gime­nens Bosco, 2008; Chea­dle, et al., 2001; Eu­lalio, et al., 2001; Moeller, 1990; Szabó, et al., 2007)

Fan-tailed war­blers have been ob­served fol­low­ing nine-banded ar­madil­los while they for­age, search­ing for prey re­vealed by the ar­madil­los’ ac­tiv­i­ties. The aban­doned bur­rows of nine-banded ar­madil­los may be oc­cu­pied by pine snakes. How­ever, these bur­rows may also pose a threat to large ter­res­trial ver­te­brates that ac­ci­den­tally step in them. It has been pro­posed that nine-banded ar­madillo car­rion re­sult­ing from road kill is be­com­ing an im­por­tant food source for some species of birds. Nine-banded ar­madil­los were in­tro­duced to Florida, and there is con­cern that they may be ex­ert­ing pre­da­tion pres­sure on en­dan­gered en­demic Florida rep­tiles. In ad­di­tion, nine-banded ar­madil­los may force Go­pherus polyphe­mus, an en­dan­gered Florid­ian tor­toise, from their bur­rows and claim them for it­self. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Ealy, et al., 2004; Schae­fer and Fagan, 2006)

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Ar­madil­los, in­clud­ing nine-banded ar­madil­los, play a large role in med­ical re­search be­cause they har­bor a num­ber of pro­to­zoan, bac­te­r­ial, and fun­gal pathogens that are re­spon­si­ble for human dis­ease. Per­haps the two most heav­ily stud­ied pathogens are the fun­gus Para­coc­cid­iodies brasilien­sis, which is re­spon­si­ble for a wide­spread my­co­sis in Brazil, and the bac­terium My­cobac­terium lep­rae, which causes lep­rosy. Nine-banded ar­madil­los are im­por­tant preda­tors of a va­ri­ety of com­mong in­sect agri­cul­tural pests. In ad­di­tion, nine-banded ar­madil­los are hunted for their meat and skin, which is used to make var­i­ous trin­kets. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Moeller, 1990; Schmidly and William, 1994)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• research and education
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

De­spite feed­ing on crop pests, nine-banded ar­madil­los can be a nui­sance for human agri­cul­ture. They feed on sev­eral crops, in­clud­ing peanuts, corn and can­taloupe. Their bur­rows pose threats to live­stock an­i­mals, who may ac­ci­den­tally step in them. Fur­ther­more, their bur­rows can weaken road shoul­ders and dikes. They also carry and can trans­mit dis­eases. (Chap­man and Feld­hamer, 1982; Moeller, 1990)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • carries human disease
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Due to their high re­pro­duc­tion rate and ex­pand­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion, nine-banded ar­madil­los are not con­sid­ered in any dan­ger. In fact, through­out most of their dis­tri­b­u­tion, their pop­u­la­tion size is in­creas­ing. ("Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus", 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

George Ham­mond (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Kahli Mc­Don­ald (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Julie Lar­son (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

2008. "Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 02, 2009 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org.

Atansanov, A. 2007. The lin­ear al­lo­met­ric re­la­tion­ship be­tween total meta­bolic en­ergy per life span and body mass of mam­mals. Biosys­tems, 90: 224-233.

Bagagli, E., S. De Moraes Gime­nens Bosco. 2008. Ar­madil­los and di­mor­phic path­o­genic fungi. Pp. 281-293 in S Vizcaíno, W Loughry, eds. The Bi­ol­ogy of the Xe­narthra. Gainesville: Uni­ver­sity Press of Florida.

Chap­man, J., G. Feld­hamer. 1982. Wild Mam­mals of North Amer­ica: Bi­ol­ogy, Man­age­ment, and Eco­nom­ics. 1982: John Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Chea­dle, M., S. Tan­hauser, J. Dame, D. Sel­lon, P. Hines, R. MacKay, E. Greiner. 2001. The nine-banded ar­madillo (Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus) is an in­ter­me­di­ate host for Sar­co­cys­tis neu­rona. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal for Par­a­sitol­ogy, 31(4): 330-335.

Ealy, M., R. Fleet, D. Rudolph. 2004. Diel ac­tiv­ity pat­terns of the Louisiana pine snake (Pituophis ruthveni) in east­ern Texas. Texas Jour­nal of Sci­ence, 56: 383-394.

Eu­lalio, K., R. de Macedo, M. Cav­al­canti, L. Mar­tins, M. Laz­era, B. Wanke. 2001. Coc­cid­ioides im­mi­tis iso­lated from ar­madil­los (Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus) in the state of Piaui, north­east Brazil. My­co­patholo­gia, 149(2): 57-61.

Loughry, W., C. Mc­Do­nough. 1994. Scent Dis­crim­i­na­tion by In­fant Nine-Banded Ar­madil­los. Jour­nal of Mam­mol­ogy, 75(4): 1033-1039.

Loughry, W., P. Prodohl, C. Mc­Do­nough, W. Nel­son, J. Avise. 1998. Cor­re­lates of Re­pro­duc­tive Suc­cess in a Pop­u­la­tion of Nine-banded Ar­madil­los. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 76(10): 1815.

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Mc­Do­nough, C., W. Loughry. 2008. Be­ha­vo­r­ial ecol­ogy of ar­madil­los. Pp. 103-110 in S Vizcaíno, W Loughry, eds. The Bi­ol­ogy of the Xe­narthra. Gainesville: Uni­ver­sity Press of Florida.

Mc­Do­nough, C. 1997. Pair­ing Be­hav­ior of the Nine-banded Ar­madillo. Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 138(2): 290-298.

Mc­Do­nough, C., W. Loughry. 1997. Pat­terns of mor­tal­ity in a pop­u­la­tion of nine-banded ar­madil­los, Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus. The Amer­i­can Mid­land Nat­u­ral­ist, 138(2): 299-305.

Moeller, W. 1990. Mod­ern Xe­narthrans. Pp. 583-626 in S Parker, ed. Grz­imek’s En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals, Vol. 2, Eng­lish Lan­guage Edi­tion. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill, Inc.

Pep­pler, R., S. Stone. 1981. An­nual Pat­tern in Plasma Testos­terone in the Male Ar­madillo, Days­pus novem­cinc­tus. An­i­mal Re­pro­duc­tion Sci­ence, 4: 49-53.

Schae­fer, R., J. Fagan. 2006. Com­men­sal for­ag­ing by a fan-tailed war­bler (Euth­lypis lachry­mosa) with a nine-banded ar­madillo (Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus) in south­west­ern Mex­ico. The South­west­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 51(4): 560 -562.

Schmidly, D., D. William. 1994. The Mam­mals of Texas. Austin: Uni­ver­sity of Texas Press.

Stan­gle, F. 1994. Evo­lu­tion of a Desert Mam­malian Fauna : a 10,000-Year His­tory of Mam­mals from Cul­ber­son and Jeff Davis Coun­ties, Trans-Pecos Texas. Wi­chita Falls, TX: Mid­west­ern State Uni­ver­sity Press.

Szabó, M., M. Olegário, A. San­tos. 2007. Tick fauna from two lo­ca­tions in the Brazil­ian sa­van­nah. Ex­per­i­men­tal and Ap­plied Ac­arol­ogy, 43(1): 73-84.

Tal­mage, R. 1954. The Ar­madillo (Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus): a Re­view of its Nat­ural His­tory, Ecol­ogy, Anatomy and Re­pro­duc­tive Phys­i­ol­ogy. Rice Uni­ver­sity Stud­ies, 41/2: 135.

Taul­man, J., L. Rob­bins. 1996. Re­cent Range Ex­pan­sion and Dis­tri­b­u­tional Lim­its of the Nine-banded Ar­madillo. Jour­nal of Bio­geog­ra­phy, 23/5: 635-648.

Van Dee­len, T., J. Par­rish, E. Heske. 2002. A Nine-Banded Ar­madillo (Dasy­pus novem­cinc­tus) from Cen­tral Illi­nois. South­west­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 47/3: 489-491.

Vickary­ous, M., B. Hall. 2006. Os­teo­derm Mor­phol­ogy and De­vel­op­ment in the Nine-Banded Ar­madil­llo, Dasys­pus novem­cinc­tus (Mam­malia, Xe­narthra, Cin­gu­lata). Jour­nal of Mor­phol­ogy, 267: 1273-1283.

Walker, E. 1964. Mam­mals of the World. Bal­ti­more, MD: John Hop­kins Press.

Weckel, M., W. Giu­liano, S. Sil­ver. 2006. Cockscomb re­vis­ited: Jaguar diet in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanc­tu­ary, Be­lize. Biotrop­ica, 38(5): 687-690.

Wil­son, D., S. Ruff. 1999. The Smith­son­ian Book of North Amer­i­can Mam­mals. Wash­ing­ton, D.C.: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press.