TIL About Nester Our Resident Florida Armadillo

My first daytime encounter with Nester, our resident armadillo for the past couple of months. I usually only come across him at night when he scares the shit out of me out on the property in the dark. I'm always relieved when I put my flashlight on him vs. something much more threatening. These our evening(nocturnal) time feeders so It's rare to catch them out and about in the middle of the day.
People tend to get so freaked out by armadillos but I find them kind of cute. Towards the end of my video you'll get a good look at his face and judge for yourself. Armadillo is Spanish for "little armoured one" which makes sense since they are wrapped with a number of thick armoured body bands, their primary defense. They have long hairy claws for digging up grubs, worms & insects they're main diet.
I've come across so many armadillos out on our property and have never found the Florida species(there are many types) to be aggressive, they always hall ass once they detect me. They have very poor eyesight which is why Nester almost reaches me before I deliberately startled him at the end of the video, they rely on a keen sense of smell to navigate to the next dig for food.

An unfortunate byproduct of Nester's stay and other armadillos is small holes wide enough that a dog, deer or horse can get their foot caught while running and potentially break a leg. For that reason many of my horse owning neighbors have no choice but to hunt these guys down at night on their properties. You can hear the one or two gunshots periodically and you know why.