A short clip featuring a three-banded armadillo has gone viral after the animal was seen turning into a perfectly sealed ball of armor.
The transformation is so seamless that it almost does not look real.
What happened?
A clip posted to Reddit's r/Damnthatsinteresting forum captures a three-banded armadillo pulling itself into a compact sphere while leaving almost no soft parts visible. By the end, the small armored mammal resembles a living, pinecone-shaped shell more than an animal.
(Click here if the embedded video does not appear.)
In the Reddit thread, much of the reaction centered on how fully it closed itself off, resulting in dozens of jokes and anecdotes about far bolder armadillos.
One commenter added, "I'm not gonna lie, I completely forgot they could even do that!"
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Another wrote, "Our armadillos are lazy, they just stand there no matter how close you are. I got one that just hangs out on my porch all the time cause my kids feed it."
A third user wrote, "It literally looks the exact same way it is done in cartoons. They were actually totally accurate! That is awesome!"
Why does it matter?
People may already associate armadillos with armor, but watching one become what appears to be an almost impregnable ball makes the specialization of that defense especially clear.
Brief videos like this can also show both why an adaptation exists and what it helps protect an animal from.
Yet, armadillos do face threats from humans, who often kill them after they burrow into lawns and gardens, or because they believe the animals carry diseases.
One Redditor noted that this balling tactic may be losing efficacy against people, writing, "Millions of years worth of evolution to create a defensive maneuver that won't work on humans because we'll just think it's cute."
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