Q: I thought I saw an armadillo on the side of the road. Is that possible? Aren’t they a Deep South thing?
A: If you mean deep Southern Indiana, then you’re correct. The nine-banded armadillo—the state mammal of Texas—started colonizing our state in the early 2000s. Enabled, like so much else, by climate change, it is now spotted as far north as Indianapolis. There’s likely a limit on how much farther up the animals can march, however. They lack fur and insulating fat, and their naturally low body temperature makes them particularly vulnerable to hypothermia. The cat-sized prolific diggers can ride out brief cold snaps in their burrows, but a long stretch of icy weather will do them in……