Armadillos are not only one of the
cutest ugly animals found in North America, but have several very interesting habits:
A: They are the only non-human animals that get leprosy. This was discovered in 1972. Due to faulty research and various political scandals, it is still unclear whether wild armadillos can actually transmit leprosy to humans, but health warnings about them have been submitted in Texas and other states.
B: Armadillos always give birth to identical quadruplets conceived from a single fertilized egg.
C: They have two methods for crossing water. Small pools and streams are crossed by walking across the bottom - the armadillo simply holds its breath and walks like a hippo, weighed down by its heavy shell. However, they can cross larger bodies of water by "ingesting" air and inflating themselves, then floating across the water. Nobody knows how they manage to voluntarily retain air in their digestive tracts to increase their buoyancy, but that's exactly what they do.
D: According to Texas legend, 'dillos always commit suicide when cars drive over them. They do this by jumping straight up into the undercarriage of the car. Aside from killing the armadillo, this can be very bad for your car.