Southern Illinois University to study migrating armadillos

(AP) — Scientists agree that armadillos are moving northward in the U.S., and one Southern Illinois University professor has taken notice.

Associate zoology professor F. Agustin Jimenez has started studying the armadillo, commonly associated with Texas, Florida and other warm-weather states, but it has recently been sighted as far north in Illinois as the Mount Vernon area.

The southern hemisphere is home to 23 species of armadillo, but only the nine-banded armadillo is moving northward.

Warmer and shorter winters could facilitate the species' survival in the northern hemisphere, Jimenez told the Southern Illinoisan (http://bit.ly/223MqOF ).