Native species

[skeeter]

Their ancestors came from Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas/Ft Worth... not to mention cities in Mexico. 'Dillo's will laugh in the face of St Louis and KC traffic... ESPECIALLY the ones with ties to Monterrey, Mexico...

Ummm.... I think in the case of those Texas towns there was a pretty easy way around them, in STL they will be somewhat trapped between Missouri and Mississippi Rivers which methinks are far larger than the Rivers they have crossed so far. So they will kind of be squeezed into the Metropolitan area and it's traffic patterns, SPLAT...CRUNCH. So when the little buggers start digging up my lawn like they do at the lake house I'll leave the Mastiff outside at night like I do at the lake, he loves to chase them. I think he likes them because they remind him of the soccer balls he loves to play with with the Grandkids. You never saw a more hilarious sight than this 185 lb. pooch batting an Armadiller around with his paws. Keeps him amused for a long time and gives me a chance to get the .22 out.

[motroutbum]

well you are right i do rememmber talking abou that in class. they may not be invasive, but they sure as hell arent native

didnt he say that they are moving north at a rate of 7.5 miles a year or something like that

[Crippled Caddis]

mtb wrote:

<didnt he say that they are moving north at a rate of 7.5 miles a year or something like that>

I was raised in the country (back when it actually existed () in Dallas County Texas in the '40s & '50s of the past century. While I can't recall the exact date I DO recall that the arrival of the Armadillo in North Texas somewhere in that timeframe was greeted by great surprise as prior to that time they were thought of as a Central/South American oddity.

Shortly after I bought my property in N. Ark in the mid '80s a local woodsman/hunter told me with the same sort of surprise that greeted them in N. TX in my youth that he had just saw his first Armadillo in the woods. In point of fact he asked me to verify his identification. So the little semi-armored critters are moving fast in terms of adapting to new territory.

Since I recall that learned opinion at one time was that they would never be able to survive cold winters North of the Red river I've started to question the 'wisdom' of the 'experts' in that regard. They may soon be surprising outdoorsmen in Canada at the rate they are moving North. CC

[Terry Beeson]

Naw, CC, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are going to keep 'em at bay and the folks around St Louie and KC are gonna run over all of 'em...

OH Wait... they're already in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida... they must have crossed the bridge at Vicksburg...

(I can tell a lot of people have never seen one of the li'l buggers swim...)

Seriously, tho... The MO and MS rivers will slow them down a bit on a northern trek and the cold weather won't help... But with global warming, who knows? By the way, they seem to be adapting pretty well to cooler climates... Can't wait to see 'em crossing Lakeshore Drive in Chicago...

[Wayne SW/MO]

If I remember right they started showing up on the north side of the Red in the early 70's, which is also about the time I saw a Road Runner in NE Oklahoma.

Global Warming or not, the winters have been getting easier since the late 50's.

[Crippled Caddis]

Wayne wrote:

<If I remember right they started showing up on the north side of the Red in the early 70's,>

Sometime in the late '80s I was fishing the lower Mt. Fork below Beavers Bend. I took a trail down to an obscure section of river and when I got in sight of the pool I wanted to fish (for trout) I stopped to watch to see if any rises were going on. As I stood there I noted a 'Dillo down near the edge of the water. As I watched he started up the path towards me. I stood still to test the near-sightedness I'd heard of. He got to me and started sniffing my wading shoes. Musta been something in them that smelled good (cheese?) because the little sucker started trying to dig my feet out. I lost my curiosity at that point and gave him a gentle boot to send him on his way---those dang digging claws on his front feet hurt!

Another 'Dillo experience on the Mt. Fork happened a bit downriver as I was hiking back upstream toward camp in the rapidly dying light at dusk. I heard a rattling in the leaves to the side of the trail and stopped to watch as a 'Dillo prepared his bed for the night. He would stand on his hind feet, gather dead leaves into a wad on his belly with his front feet and hold them there as he hopped BACKWARDS to the hole he'd selected for his bedroom. When he arrived he'd push the leaves into the hole then push them in front of him as he too descended. I watched 3 cycles of this activity before he decided he had enough and failed to re-emerge.

[jdmidwest]

Here is a good example, scientists are going to introduce an exotic species to eradicate an invasive, destructive species. I am sure you have seen the signs in campgrounds the last few summers about the ash borer and firewood brought in from afar. They are going to bring in a wasp that attacks only the ash borer to kill it off. What will happen when the ash borer is gone, will the wasp die off or will it adapt and improvise?

Anyone remember how the ladybug got here? Anyone ever have a problem with swarms in the fall of ladybugs?