Effect On The Environment
The foraging of nine-banded armadillo can cause mild damage to the root systems of certain plants, but they make up for their disruptive habits by providing homes for skunks, cotton rats, burrowing owls, and rattlesnakes, all of which can be found living in abandoned armadillo burrows.
They are typically hunted for their meat, which is said to taste like pork, but are more frequently killed as a result of their tendency to steal the eggs of poultry and game birds. This has caused certain populations of the nine-banded armadillo to become threatened, although the species as a whole is under no immediate threat. They are also valuable for use in medical research, as they are one of the few animals susceptible to the human disease leprosy. In Texas, nine-banded armadillos are raised to participate in armadillo racing, a small-scale, but well-established sport in which the animals scurry down a 40-foot track.
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