Is it legal to own a pet armadillo?

Armadillos in the United States

When people ask about a pet armadillo, they usually mean the nine-banded armadillo. North Carolina's Wildlife Resources Commission says it is native to Central and South America, and that of the 20 armadillo species, it is the only one living in the southeastern United States.

Its range is still growing. North Carolina's wildlife agency traces the spread from the first Texas record in 1849, across the Mississippi River in the early 1940s, and into western Tennessee by 1980. Armadillos reached North Carolina in the late 2000s, mostly by moving in from neighboring states. A 2025 U.S. Geological Survey study found that they now cover all of Missouri, have established in southern Iowa, have spread throughout South Carolina and Georgia and into the western third of North Carolina, and still have substantial room to expand.

People helped, too. Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says armadillos were introduced along Florida's east coast as early as the 1920s, and that they are now common across most of the state and considered naturalized.

Cold weather is the main limit. The Missouri Department of Conservation explains that armadillos are not adapted to find food when snow and ice keep them from the insects they eat, so extreme cold is thought to limit how far north they can live.

Sources: N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission: Armadillo, Nine-Banded · USGS (2025): Current distribution of the nine-banded armadillo in the United States · Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Nine-banded Armadillo · Missouri Department of Conservation: Nine-Banded Armadillo

What the animal is like

Texas Parks and Wildlife gives the nine-banded armadillo a body length of 15 to 17 inches, a tail of 14 to 16 inches, and a weight of 8 to 17 pounds. North Carolina's wildlife agency says armadillos are the only mammals with a shell.

Its life revolves around digging. Armadillos root through soil for insects, grubs and earthworms, catching most prey with a long, sticky tongue, and Florida's wildlife agency says a single animal can keep several burrows with multiple entrances. The same agency says they are most active at night and see very poorly. University of Florida extension specialists say they rely on a keen sense of smell, and that their burrows under driveways and patios can cause structural damage.

Startled armadillos jump straight up, which the Missouri Department of Conservation says helps explain why so many are hit by cars. Breeding is unusual as well: Texas Parks and Wildlife says mating takes place in July, but the embryo stays dormant until November, and each litter is four identical young of the same sex, all from a single egg.

Sources: Texas Parks and Wildlife: Nine-banded Armadillo · N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission: Armadillo, Nine-Banded · Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Nine-banded Armadillo · University of Florida IFAS Extension: The Nine-Banded Armadillo (WEC 76) · Missouri Department of Conservation: Nine-Banded Armadillo

Why the rules vary so much

The spread of wild armadillos helps explain the patchwork on the map. Where armadillos already live in the wild, states tend to handle them under their rules for native wildlife: who may capture an animal, whether it may be kept in captivity, and whether it may be moved or sold. North Carolina requires a captivity license that is not issued for pets. Oklahoma requires a noncommercial wildlife breeder's license, and Louisiana treats armadillos as nongame quadrupeds that need a breeder or exhibitor license.

Where armadillos don't live wild, states usually rely on their exotic-animal rules instead. Some name armadillos on a banned or restricted list, as California, Connecticut, Oregon and Arizona do. Others require a permit for any non-native mammal that isn't specifically exempted, as Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island do. Still others regulate only a short list of dangerous animals, which leaves armadillos outside state permit rules altogether, as in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

A few states sit in between. Armadillos are now arriving in Kentucky on their own, and the state's rules don't say whether to treat them as native or exotic wildlife, which is why that answer is unclear.

Based on the state records and sources in the table above.

What a permit can look like

Where a permit is available, the details differ. Florida treats armadillos as Class III wildlife, which needs a free personal-use permit, and its rules set caging standards for them. For one or two armadillos, the enclosure must be 4 feet long, 4 feet wide and 4 feet high, 25 percent longer for each additional animal, with a floor area deep enough for digging and a den big enough for every animal at once.

In other states a permit exists mostly on paper. Vermont grants its permits sparingly, mainly for scientific or educational purposes. Pennsylvania's import permit is open only to people who already hold a menagerie, propagation or similar permit.

Wild-caught and captive-bred animals are often treated differently. Missouri has a rule letting a resident keep up to five native animals from the wild without a permit if they are not bought or sold, which may cover a wild-caught armadillo, but buying or keeping a captive-bred one needs a wildlife breeder permit. Louisiana allows wild armadillos to be trapped and moved but not held for more than 12 hours. Georgia goes the other way and bans keeping armadillos as pets no matter where they came from.

These rules also change. Utah once allowed armadillos with a certificate of registration, but its current species table no longer lists them, and unlisted species are presumed prohibited. Tennessee, where a personal possession permit costs $10 per animal, proposed in 2023 to move armadillos to its zoo-only Class V, though that change does not appear in the current rule.

Sources: Fla. Admin. Code R. 68A-6.0128, caging requirements for armadillos (Cornell LII)

Armadillos and leprosy

The CDC says some armadillos in the southern United States are naturally infected with the bacteria that cause leprosy, also called Hansen's disease, and that the animals may be able to spread it to people. The CDC also says the risk is very low and that most people who come into contact with armadillos are unlikely to get leprosy.

The link rests on genetic evidence. A 2011 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found one strain of the leprosy bacterium in 28 of 33 wild armadillos from five southern states and in 25 of 39 U.S. patients who lived where contact with infected armadillos was possible. That strain had not been reported anywhere else in the world, and the authors concluded that leprosy may pass from animals to people in the region. A 2015 study in the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found signs of infection in about 16 percent of 645 armadillos tested in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, including Florida, where infected armadillos had not been recognized before.

Florida has since drawn attention. A 2023 case report in the same journal says central Florida accounted for 81 percent of the state's reported cases and almost one fifth of the nation's, and that about 34 percent of new U.S. patients from 2015 to 2020 appeared to have caught the disease locally. The patient in that report said he had no contact with armadillos, and the authors called for research into other ways it spreads locally.

Armadillos are also part of how leprosy is studied. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says the bacterium cannot be grown in a lab dish. Since 1978 it has funded growing it in armadillos at the National Hansen's Disease Program laboratories in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to supply researchers worldwide.

For perspective, leprosy is rare in the United States. The CDC reports up to 225 diagnoses a year nationwide, mostly in people who were infected in another country, and the disease is curable with a course of antibiotics. The Missouri Department of Conservation notes that there have been no armadillo-transmitted leprosy cases in Missouri.

Sources: CDC: About Leprosy (Hansen's Disease) · Truman et al. (2011), Probable Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southern United States, N. Engl. J. Med. (PubMed Central) · CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases (2015): Zoonotic Leprosy in the Southeastern United States · CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases (2023): Case Report of Leprosy in Central Florida, USA, 2022 · NIAID: Leprosy Basic Research · Missouri Department of Conservation: Nine-Banded Armadillo

Rules beyond the state answer

Several states regulate selling, capturing or moving armadillos separately from keeping them. Texas has banned selling a live armadillo, or holding one for sale, since 1979, with exceptions for zoos, permitted research and educational institutions, and dealers who supply them. The same law lets a peace officer seize an animal held for sale and keep it under observation for rabies or other diseases. North Carolina's wildlife agency says it is illegal to relocate an armadillo. Florida requires live-trapped nuisance armadillos to be euthanized or released on site or on a large property in the same county.

Moving an animal across state lines brings its own requirements. Michigan and West Virginia, for example, need no state permit to keep an armadillo but still require a veterinary health certificate to bring one in. At the federal level, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explains that the Lacey Act prohibits transporting, selling, receiving or buying wildlife that was taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any state law.

City rules can be stricter. New York State law does not list armadillos among banned pets, but New York City's health code separately bans many wild animals as pets.

Sources: Tex. Parks & Wild. Code § 63.103 (public.law) · N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission: Armadillo, Nine-Banded · Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Nine-banded Armadillo · U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Understanding Injurious Wildlife Regulations