For a long time, the armadillo was a Texas animal with a few Gulf Coast relatives. Biologists even drew lines on maps showing where winter would stop it. The animal didn’t pay much attention to those lines.
Today the armored, bug-hunting oddball turns up in places that earlier generations of naturalists would have called off limits. Five states show the shift especially well, and the reasons behind it are more interesting than you might expect.
Illinois: Pushing Into the Central Part of the State
Illinois is one of the clearest examples of the northern push. Researchers found the armadillo had advanced into central Illinois, which is well beyond what older range maps predicted. The National Wildlife Federation also notes that a few have even been spotted as far north as Illinois and Nebraska…