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RECENT NORTHERN RECORDS OF THE NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO (DASYPODIDAE) IN NEBRASKA

1998; Southwestern Association of Naturalists; Volume: 43; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

1943-6262

Patricia W. Freeman, Hugh H. Genoways,

Species Distribution and Climate Change

Northward dispersal of the nine-banded ar- madillo (Dugpus novemn'nctus) has been well documented, beginning with Audubon and Bachman's (1854) report of the species in ex- treme southern Texas and culminating with the survey by Humphrey (1974) in 1972 (see also Kalmbach, 1943; Buchanan and Talmage, 1954; Buchanan, 1958; Galbreath, 1982; Mc- Bee and Baker, 1982). Humphrey (1974) stat- ed that maps that do not distin- guish between permanent armadillo popula- tions and areas containing only pioneering in- dividuals are misleadingly simple. He believed that the northern limit of the per- manent population of armadillos as of 1972 was in northern Oklahoma Co., Oklahoma. In- dividuals beyond that area in northern Oklahoma and Kansas were considered to be only pioneers. Humphrey (1974) hypothesized that the northern limit of the permanent pop- ulation of armadillos could be defined by two climatic conditions-a lower limit of 380 mm of annual precipitation and an approximate upper limit of 9 freezedays a year. In 1989, Caire et al. (1989) noted that a per- manent population of armadillos was welles- tablished in Payne Co., Oklahoma, in the vicin- ity of Stillwater, approximately 55 to 65 km north of the previous limit (Humphrey, 1974). Although the population was temporarily re- duced, it had survived three successive ex- tremely cold winters in the late 1970s. Caire et al. (1989) proposed that the breeding popu- lation had reached the northern limit of its geographic range, and future range expan- sions and contractions would depend on cli- matic changes. Although the northward movement of per- manent populations of the nine-banded ar- madillos has slowed in recent years and may have reached its northern limit (Caire et al., 1989), the pioneering zone for the species has continued to expand northward and westward on the central Great Plains. Hibbard (1944) reported the first Recent records of the arma- dillo from Kansas in Chase and Sumner coun- ties. Subsequent authors (Cockrum, 1952; Hall, 1955; Getz, 1961) documented the north- ward expansion of this pioneering zone in east- ern Kansas as far as Osage Co. The first records of the armadillo north of the Arkansas River in central and western Kansas were reported by Smith and Lawlor (1964) based on individ- uals taken in Sheridan Co. in 1958 and in Sa- line Co. in 1962. Choate and Fleharty (1975) reviewed the distribution of armadillos in west- ern Kansas, including additional records (see also Bee et al., 1981; Sparks and Choate, 1995). On 3 July 1963, the first armadillo was re- corded in Colorado based on a subadult fe- male taken in the Cimarron River valley in Baca Co. (Hahn, 1966; Armstrong, 1972). Two additional specimens of armadillo have been recorded in eastern Colorado both in associa- tion with river systems (Fitzgerald et al., 1994). The first was an adult male found on 26 June 1986 in Prowers Co. in the riparian corridor of the Arkansas River (Meaney et al., 1987) and the second specimen was found on