Critter clattering into state

The Associated Press carried a story last week from The Herald-Times of Bloomington about armadillos making their way to Indiana.

The cat-sized, armored critter was first spotted in 2003, near the Illinois state line in Gibson County, the story said.

The animal is more common to southern states, including Texas and Arkansas where I once lived years ago. They were the equivalent of the Hoosier state's opossum - the most common type of roadkill.

And that's how they've been spotted in Indiana. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says four armadillos have been found dead in southern Indiana in recent years.

All four nine-banded armadillos were fresh roadkill, Scott Johnson, a DNR mammal ecologist, told The Herald-Times.

A second has been found in Gibson County, and one each has been spotted in Dubois and Vanderburgh counties, according to the story.

Armadillos can be found from New Mexico to North Carolina, from Florida as far north as central Illinois, the AP story reported.

A DNR official said the armadillos may be expanding their range to Indiana.

"I'm guessing that may happen," he said. "We'll have to see what they can do over the winter."

Armadillos are mammals, but have a hard outer shell. Their main diet is insects and grubs and adults are about the size of a large house cat.

Johnson said southern Indiana residents might see evidence of the armadillos digging at night for grubs in soft soil or come across them on the roadway.

My first encounter with an armadillo was, I must admit, rather frightening.

I had worked late into the night and early morning hours at The Chicot Spectator in Lake Village, Ark.

As I walked up a downtown alley behind the newspaper office en route to my apartment on Cokeley Street, I suddenly heard this clanking and saw what appeared to be the largest rat - cloaked in armor - scooting down the alley toward me.

I knew nothing else to do but run.

So I did.

And quickly so (I was much thinner and nimbler back then).

And it followed after me.

Fortunately it stopped at a trash pail under a light behind what I believe was the town's swanky clothing store. And my armored, overgrown rat was an armadillo, only this one wasn't squashed across pavement, or at least not yet.
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Dan Davis is editor of The Tribune. You may reach him by phone at 523-7051 or by e-mail at ddavis@tribtown.com.