South Carolina’s armadillo record belongs to the Lowcountry. Charleston and Beaufort counties hold 331 reports between them, more than a third of the state’s total, and coastal ground like Edisto Beach State Park and Botany Bay Plantation shows up prominently. Colleton County adds 84 more. The sandy, soft-soiled coastal plain is prime digging country, and this comparatively recent arrival has made itself at home there.
The species isn’t only coastal, though. Congaree National Park, the most reported single site with 37 records, sits well up the Congaree River in the midlands, and Oconee County’s 33 reports put armadillos in the mountain corner too.
Reports peak from May through July. South Carolina’s armadillos are still spreading inland from the coastal plain, so today’s county map is a snapshot of an ongoing expansion rather than a settled range.
