The name "armadillo" originates from Spanish, meaning "little armored one," a reference to the creature’s tough outer shell. While most armadillos reside in Latin America, the nine-banded armadillo calls the United States home. In some parts of the U.S., armadillos are considered pests as they burrow into the ground in search of food, occasionally provoking the outrage of nearby humans who happen to be armed. Despite reports of bullets ricocheting off the hard shells of armadillos, their armor isn't bulletproof.
2015 seems to have been a particularly unlucky time for armadillos. In July of that year, a man in Cass County, Texas, used a .38 revolver to shoot at an armadillo that he found on his property in the middle of the night. The shell of the armadillo deflected a bullet, which then rebounded, injuring the man’s jaw. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital to seek medical care. It’s unknown whether the armadillo survived.
A similar incident occurred in April 2015 when a man used a 9mm pistol to shoot an armadillo outside his mother-in-law’s home in Lee County, Georgia. The bullet supposedly ricocheted off the animal, hit a fence, and whizzed through the back door, striking the back of the chair in which 74-year-old Carol Johnson was sitting. The mother-in-law sustained minor injuries but the armadillo was killed.
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However, an armadillo's shell is not actually bulletproof, according to Mariella Superina, chair of the Anteater, Sloth, and Armadillo Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission. In fact, armadillos are vulnerable to larger predators, like dogs or birds of prey, that can break through the animal's resilient shell.
Armadillos and other “armored” creatures:
- The outer shell of an armadillo is a unique, protective armor composed of bony plates called osteoderms. These plates are covered by keratin and connected with movable bands of skin, effectively protecting the animal from thorny vegetation and certain predators.
- Abalones, a genus of gastropod mollusks, have been studied by the U.S. Army for armor development research, owing to the remarkable resiliency of their convex, layered shells.
- Native to California and Baja California, the diabolical ironclad beetle boasts a formidable exoskeleton primarily composed of chitin, a naturally occurring polysaccharide known for its exceptional strength. This armor is so robust that the beetles can withstand being run over by a car!
