Range expansion and distributional limits of the nine-banded armadillo in the United States: an update of Taulman & Robbins (1996)

We conducted a new survey of biologists throughout the southern and central United States, in order to update our last analysis of the range expansion and distributional limits of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) since 1994. While the armadillo's range has remained stationary to the west along a line corresponding to about 50 cm annual precipitation, it has advanced to the north through central Kansas, into central Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky, through central Tennessee, covering Alabama and all but the north-eastern region of Georgia, and into central South Carolina. The population has reached a latitude corresponding to an average minimum daily January temperature of -8 degrees C in Kansas. Armadillos may continue to move northwards in states farther east where they do not yet reach the -8 degrees C zone. In the eastern seaboard states, other factors besides winter temperature extremes may be limiting the armadillo's range expansion.