Armadillos all over Middle and West Tennessee

[tercel89]

I was traveling through several middle and west Tn counties today , at least 8 , and I saw 16 separate dead armadillos. I started noticing them in Tennessee around 5 yrs ago and now they are everywhere it seems.

Also some TWRA guys I know said that they are carriers of the Leporacy disease .

Anyone else notice these little armor plated opposums all over TN ?

[Oh Shoot]

...

Also some TWRA guys I know said that they are carriers of the Leporacy disease . ...

Sort of, very rare evidence.

Cook thoroughly, don't eat the brains, and don't french kiss live ones, you'll be okay.

- OS

[Chris]

Personally, I leave them alone. Studies show they can transmit leprosy to humans.

MMS: Error

I figure, why risk it.

[Chris]

I can't get the link to work for some reason but the article is at the New England Journal of Medicine and is titled "Probably Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southern United States".

[Caster]

I bet a ballistic tip or a V max against that hide would be nasty!

[JeffL]

Kill on sight.

[analog_kidd]

A century or so ago, they were somehow introduced into Florida from Texas. Now, Florida is infested with them. They can really tear up a piece of land too.

[Howler]

Shot one with the .223 last Feb. Stink as bad as a coyote.

[tercel89]

They are known to root up the ground just as bad as a hog would .

[Guest Red5]

I first noticed them in the Bolivar / Selmer area in the mid 90's. Prior to that the only place I had seen one was in a kick-ass video.

[Caster]

Wow, that's antique! Those jet fighters looked like F4 Phantoms. When's the last one of those you saw in the air?

[Oh Shoot]

Shot one with the .223 last Feb. Stink as bad as a coyote.

Folks ate millions of Hoover Hogs during the Depression, we might be glad they are here this time around.

- OS

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I've seen dead ones as close as Montgomery/Dickson County line on Hwy 48.

Bruceton/ Camden/New Johnsonville area is full of them. Live and roadkill alike.

[monkeylizard]

I see them in western Davidson and northern Williamson county all the time. At least 2 or 3 a month now. Used to be 1 every 2 years.

[daddyo]

I used to see them all the time when I lived in Central Florida in the mid-seventies. I have yet to see one in TN.

[Tempest455]

I see them all the time. Mostly on near the AL/TN border. In AL they are everywhere.

[MacGyver]

I remember hiking as a kid on Cumberland Island in south Georgia and meeting a guy whose job it was to drive around the island in a truck and shoot them on sight with a bolt action .22mag. We saw him every day for a week and the back of his truck was full every time.

That was the first place I ever got chased by a hog, too.

[Motasyco]

Considering the current state of affairs around the world, perhaps this may soon be useful;

Wild Game Recipes| Armadillo Recipes

[Oh Shoot]

Considering the current state of affairs around the world, perhaps this may soon be useful;

Wild Game Recipes| Armadillo Recipes

Yeah, that's good ole Hoover Hog. Maybe we'll see Obama Opossum ere long, too.

- OS

[Guest m14man]

i was told they are following the migration of fire ants from texas.

[Guest db99wj]

Haven't noticed fire ants here, but armadillos, yes, hundreds, all but two dead!

[R_Bert]

Did anyone notice that Armadillo hunting is no longer permitted in TN ?

They were in last years regs, but not the new one.

B.

[JAB]

I remember seeing them dead along the roads in eastern Mississippi and even slightly into western Tennessee when I would go on trips with my dad (he was a long haul truck driver at the time) when I was in my early teens. That was nearly thirty years ago and I specifically remember seeing them because armadillos seemed so 'exotic' to me.

More recently, we've also noticed them - again, dead along the roads - when driving to Florida or parts of Alabama down near the gulf for vacation. Just this last May, however, we noticed (to the point that my wife commented about it to me) that there seemed to be many more dead armadillos along the highways than we had ever noticed, before and that they seemed to be ranging much further north than we had noticed previously - almost to the northern Alabama line.

I remember in my zooarchaeology class at UT back in the mid 1990s the professor used armadillos as an example of climate and physical adaptations limiting an animals range. He said that they had made it to West Tennessee and could survive there okay but that they still hadn't made it to East Tennessee because our general, overall climate - and possibly even more so the climate in the higher elevations they'd have to cross to get here - was still just a little too cold for too many weeks at a time for an animal with armored plates surrounding its body. Could it be that the armadillo is expanding its range in response to an overall warming trend?

Edited August 9, 2011 by JAB

[monkeylizard]

The polar bears can eat them. Problem solved.

[greenego]

Them ain't real Armadillos in Tennessee. Them's possum on the half shell