thinking about life & its twists and turns today……a lot for an armadillo to deal with but i’ll be okay………….
In case anyone was worried about this little guy
Thank you, I was 😀
armadillo, born and raised in the desert for years without seeing a large body of water: *sees a pool* ohhhhh fuck yeag im goin in that big puddle baby
of course they cant swim -_- .. they have been born and raised in a DESERT. not water it aint no fishhh you should save other armadillos i think they are murdering them for something i forgot what but they would murder them. for something like food? or value
i’m not sure what you’re trying to say with your last few sentences, but brokenblackcatskulls is not lying or relaying false info.
the nine banded armadillo is very much an excellent swimmer that can hold its breath for up to 6 minutes because its ancestors came from tropical areas in South America and they often had to cross bodies of waters.
while we often see them depicted in the desert, it should be noted that they do not inhabit barren stretches of sand, but regions that experience rainfall and have vegatation. prolonged drought kills them.
their presence in Texas—where these pictures were taken—is actually fairly recent, occuring over only the past few hundred years, and largely due to human intervention. people used to keep them as both exotic pets and sources of food before they either escaped or were released into the wild and established a population. they are technically an invasive species.
The vast majority of mammals can swim, the exception being a few great apes. Many things that are not fish can swim. Nine-banded armadillos like the one above are actually very athletic little creatures, they run like jackrabbits. They more often live in scrubland or forests, and need to regularly drink water to stay alive.
Also, there is water in the desert, including pools of it. We call that an oasis and/or a vernal pool.
I’m just remembering this animal tour I was part of at a zoo once. Don’t remember what zoo, I think San Diego? The zookeeper leading the tour brought out a little three-banded armadillo for an animal encounter. He was like 12 years old and had bristles all on the inside of his shell and along his tummy. He’d been woken up to be brought out, and his tiny armadillo dick was out, so I dunno if he was having a nice dream or if that was just standard male armadillo state. Apparently he’s had a lot of kids, so that might be the standard for him.
The keeper held him for a little bit so everyone could (lightly) touch his shell and see what it felt like, then put him down (he was getting wiggly) and let him toddle around. He walked like a wind-up toy, all slow and puttery, which is evidently top speed for a three-banded armadillo. The lady who brought him out was apparently the one who fed him, and she was really surprised when I told her that nine-banded armadillos (native to Texas and surroundings, three-banded are from Brazil) run like rabbits and can easily outrun humans. They don’t have armadillos in California, apparently.
I’m still surprised nobody in the group of high-school-age kids remarked on the armadillo dick.
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