"Dave Balderstone" wrote:

I think I saw some of those in Florida... Armordillos?

SFWIW:

Goodyear Tire has/had a test track a few miles outside San Angelo, TX,
which I'm told is/was the sheep capital of the USA.

There was a 5 mile high speed oval for testing automotive tires and an
8 mile oval for life testing of truck tires.

They had left the brush in the infield of the 8 mile track which made
great habitant for rattlesnakes and the occasional armadillo.

Let me tell you driving at 55 MPH in the hot sun of San Angelo in July
can be downright miserable as well as boring as the devil.

The night shift was a little better, but not much.

(Spending a little time at the test track made you appreciate why
people wear cowboy boots in that part of the world.)

The rattlesnakes would come out of the infield and crawl out onto the
track to sun themselves which created an opportunity for the drivers
to relieve the boredom.

Driver would run over a snake, then stop and cut off the rattle, get
back in the truck and keep going until rest break, when he would grab
a hammer, some 16d nails and nail rattle(s) up on a 4x8 sheet of
plywood in the rest station.

During my visit, they had filled up 2-3 plywood sheets.

Once and a while an armadillo would come running out on the track.

The object was to hit the armadillo and not kill it, but simply to
knock it out of it's shell.

Makes life easier for the other predators as well as demonstrate the
driver's skill.

Amazing how resourceful the human animal can be.

Lew