Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday and Wednesday, April 29 and 30, 2025
Quiz question: What do King Uzziah, Naaman, and this armadillo have in common? And no, the answer is not that they were not very smart, or that they were all hard-headed. While this might be true, the answer we are looking for is that they all had, or could have leprosy. In fact, the armadillo is the only animal besides humans that can carry Hansen’s disease or leprosy. The Nine-banded Armadillo is the species we have in the United States, but several other species live elsewhere in the Americas. Although it is referred to as having nine bands, this number may vary anywhere from seven to eleven. But the armadillo part, which means “little armored one” in Spanish, is derived from the keratinized epidermal scales which offer it protection. It entered the United States in the late 1800s and is still expanding its range today and has reached northward as far as Illinois and Indiana.
Although feared during biblical times, each year there are between 150 to 200 cases of leprosy reported in the United States, some of which may have been transmitted through contact with armadillos. Fortunately the disease is now able to be treated if caught early and since 95% of the people are already immune to leprosy, the danger of catching it through inter-species contact is minimal. Still, they can be used for medical research on this illness.
Other oddities which set this animal apart include the fact that it can cross rivers by inflating its intestines, or alternatively, by sinking and running across the bed of the river. It is able to do so because it has the ability to hold its breath for six minutes, a quality also useful when foraging for insects buried in the soil. But unlike some of its southern relatives, it is not capable of rolling into a ball for protection. And lastly, they always give birth to a litter of identical quadruplets developed from a single egg.
How vast and wonderful is creation, the works of His hands which show infinite wisdom and love of the exception. This means you and I are included in that list because we each possess qualities which make us unique.