Missouri’s armadillo records trace the rivers. Franklin County, on the Missouri River west of St. Louis, leads with 97 reports, and St. Louis, Boone, and St. Charles counties follow, a chain along the state’s big midsection corridor. River valleys gave armadillos their routes north: milder pockets along the water, soft banks for burrowing, and continuous cover.
The Ozarks anchor the southern end of the pattern, with Mark Twain National Forest the most reported single place. In all, 83 of Missouri’s 115 counties have at least one record, and the tally keeps growing.
October is the peak month, with a smaller bump in February. That late-winter rise is largely a road-mortality effect: armadillos forced onto open ground end up on pavement, where they get counted. Missouri sits near the northern edge of the range, and rough winters still trim the species back.
