Close Encounter With an Armadillo at Busiek
The first time I ever saw an armadillo was about 21 years ago. I had just graduated from high school and me and my friends were going down to the lake house in Shell Knob, a place I have enjoyed all my life. We passed by it in Billings. It was dead along the side of the road, like most of the armadillos you see.
We had to stop and check it out. Armadillos in Missouri. Who knew? We poked it with a stick for a while. Yup, it was dead. Now 21 years later all the armadillos I have ever seen in Missouri with the exception of one were dead--road kill.
They say an Armadillo would survive most of their interactions with cars. Most cars are high enough they would just roll over them without contact, or so I have been told. The problem stems from their natural defense mechanism in which they jump up. I don't know if that is true or not, but there are sure a lot of dead armadillos on the side of the road. I don't think I have ever hit one though.
Well my record of coming across one live armadillo was forever changed today as I took a four-mile hike into Busiek on the purple trail. From the moment I got on the trail, it was armadillo city. I must have saw a dozen of them. Most of them knew about me before I knew about it and they were well on their way to a safer place by the time I made out their ruffling through the leaves and made out their armored bodies, except for one.
I saw it from a distance and decided to see how close I could get--about two feet to be exact. It wasn't too sure about me, and I was just waiting for it to jump up and freak me out. Rather it ran, so I don't know if it was just some Missouri hillbilly pulling my leg or not, after all I have adopted the ways of the city and I am more street smart than I am in touch with nature.
Anyway, here is video from my hike today in which I had a close encounter with an Armadillo. For the record, I normally would expect to see them in the middle of December, but it was a humid 51 degrees today--a perfect day for a hike.
