Return to the Name That Animal Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
What's making these big sandpiles?
| | |
Posted by rvird01 (My Page) on Sat, Nov 19, 11 at 15:33
We have lived in Florida for 3 years and have never had this problem before. We live in the sandhills with pine forests in North Central Florida. In just one day something has made at least 15 sand piles about 1 foot high and 2-3 feet wide all around the property. There are no holes in the piles, it's as if they have been pushed up from below. We have gopher tortoises, so I know what their burrows look like but that's not what did these.
Could it be armadillos? As I said, no holes, even when I push the piles down. I also posted on the Florida gardening forum. Thanks for any help or suggestions. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What's making these big sandpiles?
| | |
RE: What's making these big sandpiles?
| | |
| ROFL! Nope, not gophers. Not in FL. It is the illusive Nine-Banded Armadillo. They make big ol' sand piles where they root for worms and grubs. The sand piles often look like ant beds. They come out at night and do their dirty work, and sometimes on overcast days they will sneak out around fence lines or woods lines and root, especially if they have little ones following them around. Armadillos are extremely unique. When they breed, they let down one ovum. Once fertilized, this 'blastocyst' sort of hibernates until the timing is right for it to divide and implant (when environmental variables are good). It will divide into four separate blastocysts and then they will implant and grow. Thus, the Nine-Banded Armadillo babies are always born in sets of four, always the same sex (because they are from the same egg) and have their eyes open and are ready to go as soon as they are born, like baby chickens.
Nine-Banded Armadillos are not native to the US, but they migrated here on their own many years ago, via Texas, from Mexico. They are hardy and can thrive in moist as well as arid climates. Their ability to 'hold' their fetus implantation (up to two years from the actual time of breeding) is how they have succeeded so well. |
RE: What's making these big sandpiles?
| | |
| Why not gopher? They do appear to inhabit North Central Florida. Pocket Gopher I'm certainly no expert but reading that article doesn't rule out "Gopher" in my mind? What am I missing?
Damage and Control The most common problem associated with pocket gophers is the numerous large, sandy mounds they deposit on the surface. |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Name That Animal Forum
Special Notes for Uploading Images:
- You will be asked to designate your image file on the preview page, the second step in posting.
- Image uploads are not enabled for followup messages.
- The Subject of your post should describe your image, i.e., "Barn Owl."
- Image files may not be larger than 60 kilobytes.
- Images must be either in GIF or JPEG format and have one of the following file extensions: .gif, .jpeg or .jpg
- File names containing only letters, numbers, dashes or underlines will work best, such as: "im-1_a.jpg" File names containing special charcters like #, @ or %, may cause problems.
- File uploads work with Netscape version 2.0 and above,
and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, but they do not work with many of the browsers that claim to be compatible with Netscape, including earlier versions of Internet Explorer.
- If you need further help or want to test the system, please visit the Image Upload Test Forum at That Home Site!
|
|
|
