In the northern part of the state, two reports were received in Cook County, which is where Chicago is located. ![]() In the summer of 2021, an armadillo was found dead behind a Kia dealership in Springfield, located in central Illinois. Within just 24 hours, over 400 reports were given - mostly from the southern part of the state, according to the Chicago Tribune.īut armadillos have been observed in central and even northern Illinois. In February 2022, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources asked the public to report any sightings in the state. Right now, the winters and the conditions of the ground in southern Illinois make it easier for them to access some of these insects," said Jiménez. "It could make it really hard for them to reach larva, the insects that they feed on. The results showed the armadillos are staying local, and even more could be spotted in southern Illinois.ĭue to the southern portion of Illinois experiencing a more mild winter than other parts of the state, Jiménez said he doesn't expect them to inhabit areas much farther north. Jiménez's students recently put a tracker on armadillos found in the southern parts of Illinois to monitor their movement to try to learn more about why they are migrating north. ![]() Photo courtesy of Southern Illinois Armadillo Project "With warmer temperatures being found further north, armadillos could potentially be found in areas that were totally unexpected 20 years ago," Colleen McDonough, an ecologist and armadillo expert at Georgia's Valdosta State University, told National Geographic.Īrmadillo sighting in Carbondale, Illinois. But they are surviving," said Jiménez.Ī study published in the Wiley Journal of Biogeography said armadillos could one day live as far north as Pennsylvania due to warmer winters. ![]() "Usually, the winters that we would expect for this area, the temperatures, would actually have taken care of them. The exact reason these animals are migrating north is unclear, but several studies have pointed to climate change and warming winters. A couple in Illinois sent a video to AccuWeather of an armadillo in their backyard over the winter, and just two weeks later another armadillo was sighted in Illinois.
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