LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Deep into the woods of Bernheim Forest, about 20 minutes south of the Gene Snyder Freeway, several new visitors are now calling Kentucky home.
The armadillos are mysterious, and they’ve travelled a long way.
“I think I like them because they are so strange, right?" Bernheim Natural Areas Manager Evan Patrick said. "It’s a strange animal.”
His fellow Natural Areas Specialist Cody Ferguson agreed, saying armadillos are “pretty shy; they don’t like to be around people, they are really skittish.”
At Bernheim, they are giving a big Kentucky "Hey y’all” to the armadillos. The armored mammals best known in Texas, are now the closest to Metro Louisville in their history.
Bernheim officials believe they have three armadillos that have been there at least two months.
Ironically, no one at Bernheim has seen one in person, even though the natural areas specialists spend hours in the forest.
They were discovered after they were captured by Bernheim’s network of field cameras.
Bernheim’s Director of Conservation Andrew Berry, said just the talk of the armadillos has been beneficial.
“When people come down here and have the possibility of seeing a Golden Eagle, Black Bear, or even an Armadillo, they get excited," he said. "This has peaked everybody's interest.”
But there they also see reality. Natural Areas Specialist Patrick Likens explained armadillos "are a sign of warming winters."
"I’ll be interested to see how they do this winter and the coming months,” he said.
German immigrant Issac Bernheim, the founder and visionary bourbon executive, would likely say this to the mammals: “Make this your home.”
Berry agreed.
“I think if you look at the animals here in 1930, when he was creating Bernheim and look now, I think he would be really proud of the species that have found their way back to Bernheim naturally," he said.
Bernheim officials said armadillos won't harm anybody that notices them, and that they were in western Kentucky for a while before making their way up Interstate 65.
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