9-banded armadillos are not an invasive species in North America (1 Viewer)

[MarkGelbart]

A recent study discovered 9-banded armadillo DNA from a 10,000 year old specimen in Medford Cave, Florida.

9-banded armadillos are merely recolonizing former habitat.

https://pgl.soe.ucsc.edu/shapiro14.pdf

 

[fugl]

A recent study discovered 9-banded armadillo DNA from a 10,000 year old specimen in Medford Cave, Florida.

9-banded armadillos are merely recolonizing former habitat.

https://pgl.soe.ucsc.edu/shapiro14.pdf

Depends on one's definition of "invasive", I suppose. Lots of water under the bridge in 10 millennia. But how does it matter? Are armadillos currently under attack because of their "invasiveness"?

 

[DMW]

Maybe it's time us Brits recolonised former habitat too?

We've only been gone a few hundred years. I'm sure things can't have changed that much in so short a period of time.

:smoke:

 

[Farnboro John]

Maybe it's time us Brits recolonised former habitat too?

We've only been gone a few hundred years. I'm sure things can't have changed that much in so short a period of time.

:smoke:

You want to?

I thought 9-banded Armadillos colonised from further south? That's not invasiveness, which is generally understood to mean explosive increase of introduced species. That is normal, natural colonisation.

John

 

[MarkGelbart]

Depends on one's definition of "invasive", I suppose. Lots of water under the bridge in 10 millennia. But how does it matter? Are armadillos currently under attack because of their "invasiveness"?

It's legal to kill unlimited numbers of them year round because they are classified as invasive.

 

[Jos Stratford]

It's legal to kill unlimited numbers of them year round because they are classified as invasive.

As John's comment above, didn't Armadillos arrive in the US primarily through range expansion, not human introduction? As I understood, there is a question of origin over Florida's animals, but not over those in Texas, etc.

If so, whilst perhaps technically invasive to Florida, they are not invasive to the US, they are natural colonists (regardless of the 10,000 year old specimen). Any classification of them as invasive in this circumstance would be incorrect, so should not be used as grounds for unlimited killing.

But, are Armadillos actually being hunted on the grounds of supposed invasiveness? Or simply being hunted like many other indigenous species, such as with ground dogs, etc?

 

[fugl]

Wikipedia has a decent summary of the history and status of the critter in the US. Evidently no restrictions on hunting but there's no mention of eradication campaigns.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-banded_armadillo