JACKSON COUNTY – When you think of armadillos, you may associate them with Texas. But scientists tell us they have found a permanent home in Illinois.
On farmland near Carbondale, F. Agustin Jimenèz walks past acres of soybeans into a wooded area. Jimenèz is a Zoology professor at Southern Illinois University. He’s setting up camera traps to catch images of an elusive animal coming in and out of a burrow.
Around two in the morning, a nine-banded armadillo shows up, headed out for an overnight meal. Jimenèz described the mamals.
“They’re kind of like armored raccoons. These organisms basically have a compact body. Their nose is very elongated, so their snout is very pointy. And they have ears that to some people resemble those of rabbits,” said Jimenèz.
Weighing up to 17 pounds, with short legs, long claws and a big tail, the armadillo is mostly a nocturnal animal. It spends the night digging for insects to eat.
The armadillos’ roots are South and Central America. For centuries, they’ve expanded territory north. They are the state mammal in Texas.
According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the animals were first spotted in southern Illinois in 1970. As of 2024, they are found in nearly half of our state, as far north as Sangamon County.
Jimenèz said part of the reason for the armadillo expanding its terroritory is human transformation of the Mississippi River.
“And then with that basic basically, there is kind of, like more habitat that is usable for land animals in that also that allow the clearing of vast patches of forest that actually were used for agricultural purposes and then that established, kind of like the these fragmented habitats with sporadic ponds that the armadillos like,” said Jimenèz.
Armadillos have little hair and cannot survive on ground that is frozen for more than a few days. But climate change means winter in much of Illinois is becoming more bearable.
“The warmer winters that suddenly become shorter and shorter… we believe that might’ve presented these animals with an opportunity to survive. This is a working hypothesis that we have,” said Jimenèz.
The day of our interview, Carbondale wildlife controller David Easton opened up the back of his truck and pulled out a cage. Inside was what he estimated to be a year old armadillo weighing ten to 12 pounds.
“It’s number 16 that I’ve caught since the spring on my place alone, because they’re doing a lot of damage to my grass and my trees,” said Easton.
The creatures are not protected by the Illinois Wildlife Code and can be removed without a permit.
In Southern Illinois, you’re likely to pass by armadillos as roadkill. That’s partly because of poor vision and how they respond to noises, like vehicles when they cross the road.
“When they’re spooked, they jump straight up. Well, if you straddle them in a car and they come straight up and damage themselves in your under carriage, they’re many times not salvageable anyway,” said Beverly Shoftstal, founder of Free Again Wildlife Rehab in Carterville.
She cares for hundreds of injured wild animals. In recent years, she’s seen an increase in armadillos, which are a challenge to rehome.
“We try to take them back to an area they came from. They are pretty nomadic. It’s not like they’ve got territory that they defend,” said Shoftstal.
Armadillos are also the only mammals besides humans that carry leprosy, a disease that causes nerve damage. But according to Jimenèz, there’s not much cause for concern for armadillos in Illinois because they haven’t been exposed to the disease.
“So the animals that are making it here are the ones that are free of infection. Since nobody is infected in about 300 miles around, the animals are in a clean environment,” said Jimenèz.
Jimenèz said armadillos are a challenge to document.
“They are relatively difficult to follow, difficult to handle. And then we cannot get with large sample sizes, because they also have differences. They have different behaviors, different habits, and then they kind of like are unpredictable in a way that is not consistent with their small brain,” said Jimenèz.
Armadillos are not the only new animals making a home in our state.
“Even in Southern Illinois, we have black vultures, we have ticks, we have geckos and organisms that, in some cases, are just expanding their their habitat,” said Jimenèz.
Funding for Illinois Public Media’s State of Change stories is provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust.