If you’ve noticed more armadillos scuttling through the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center lately, you’re not alone.
Tiffany Ritter, Education Director at the Houston Arboretum, confirms that staff and visitors alike have observed a notable increase in armadillo sightings over the past several years. This year brought particularly encouraging signs: three different groups of baby armadillos, called pups, which Ritter says “is not that common.”
A Story of Resilience
While the Arboretum doesn’t conduct official population monitoring, Ritter attributes the apparent rebound to a period of relative habitat stability following years of environmental stress and construction disruption.
The severe 2011 drought resulted in the loss of 55% of the Arboretum’s tree canopy, leading to extensive dead timber removal throughout 2012 and 2013. Combined with sustained master plan construction, conditions were less than ideal for the sensitive animals, who prefer quieter surroundings.
But it was the back-to-back floods of 2016 and 2017, including Hurricane Harvey, that likely impacted the population most severely…