BIKING ARMADILLOS

In our little Ozark community, we are putting in more bike routes.  One challenge is that our little community isn’t used to bikers so a jaunt around town can be an educational experience for automotive drivers, walkers, and the bikers themselves.  It would be fabulous to have a dedicated bike/walking trail wide enough to accommodate both, but there isn’t enough money in the coffers to do that.  The solution – piecemeal it as money and time allows.   The next piece will be a protected bike lane adjacent to a busy road.  What protects it are bike armadillos.  If you are in visioning little armadillos on bikes… welcome to my world.  In reality, they are “bumps” as shown in the picture above.  I wonder how googlie eyes would look on those?  So, where is the biological tidbit?  Right… on it.  Armadillo is Spanish for “little armored one”.  This refers to the shell-like bony plates that cover the armadillo.  I thought these articulated, allowing the armadillo to roll up as a defense against predators, like in the cartoons.  Regrettably, only the three-banded armadillo has this super power and can fully roll up.  We have the nine-banded version in the US which has extended its range from South American to us.  When frightened, the nine-banded armadillo jumps up (vertically).  This is a pretty good antipredator device.  It can surprise the predator or allow the armadillo to jump over an attacker.  The down side occurs when the armadillo is traveling on the road and gets surprised by car headlights.  Car grills are right at the jumping height of armadillos, resulting in many “road kills”.  Maybe this is how bike armadillos got their name?