Until seven years ago, I had never seen an armadillo (I still have yet to see a living armadillo). The first ones I saw were roadkill on highway 75 between Topeka and Dallas, but I never saw any north of the Oklahoma border, until recently. They’ve made their way into Kansas, as the evidence along the roadside clearly shows.
Just last week, I was traveling along I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis, when I saw at least 10 dead ones along the side of the road. At first I thought to myself, “Of course, we’re south of the Missouri river.” Then I realized that we were North of the river, and that somehow, these armadillos had migrated, and must have swum across the wide (and dangerously-fast flowing) Missouri River.
Are armadillos affected by climate change, too? These animals have moved North because the winters have been less harsh, and they aren’t the only ones. Species will have to adapt to climate change, or become extinct. Scientists say we are on the brink of the next mass extinction. This time, the cause of it is us.