Wildlife officials are unsure how an armadillo ended up dead on the side of the road in a Chicago suburb, hundreds of miles from its normal range.

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The leather-armored mammals have been steadily expanding northward in recent years with the online encyclopedia Wikipedia citing reports they have been found in Nebraska and southern Illinois. But Homer, Ill., is still a bit of a stretch.

Jim Suppes of neighboring Lenox told the Chicago Sun-Times he discovered the armadillo while jogging last week near Messenger Woods Forest Preserve.

"I've been jogging up through there for years," he said. "You see dead critters and roadkill often. ... I froze in my tracks, and I said to myself, 'This is an armadillo.'"

A township road crew came up the carcass last Friday, the newspaper reported Thursday.

David Robson, natural resource manager for the preserve, suggested the armadillo had "human assistance" on its way north.

The nine-banded armadillo, the only species native to the United States, is most common in the southern states, especially Texas.