Imagine going to sleep at 3:00 p.m. and not getting up until 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Many kinds of armadillos do something similar, sleeping in a burrow for up to 16 hours a day.
Sleeping a lot isn’t the only thing about armadillos that makes them interesting. These creatures are the only mammals to have bony plates covering their back, head, legs, and tail. The plates are like protective armor. In fact, the word armadillo is Spanish for “little armored one.” When threatened, most armadillos press their body into dirt to keep from being turned over.
