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Armadillo News

Armadillo News

A few months back we showed you some amazing footage of armadillos from one of our supported projects.

We’ve just heard from the project team and they’re getting some fantastic results. 

Despite a few months of no sightings, three armadillos were captured and tagged within days of each other. 

Project leader Arnaud sent us this blog recently:

“The best part of this project is that it feels we make new discoveries each day. One night we observed one of the giant armadillos make 5 feeding holes over 80 cm deep in less than 15 minutes.  Even armed with a shovel we would have a hard time doing that! Or what about the speed at which they blast through termite mounds?    These animals are just amazingly powerful. We are monitoring termite mounds predated by giant armadillos to see if they recover or not.

One night we observed one of our armadillos blasting a termite mound and set a camera the next morning. That night the armadillo returned to the mound and we got some amazing pictures of the animal – see the photo below.  It actually climbed on the termite mound and ripped out the chimneys. These chimneys are like pure cement. We could never make them budge unless we used a sledge hammer.

Another exciting behaviour we registered was our very first giant armadillo “ROMANCE”.   For the first time we have evidence of giant armadillos sharing a burrow.  Isabelle, a beautiful adult female we have been monitoring since November 2011, went in a burrow she had dug a few days before.  A little over 30 minutes later, Zezinho, an adult male, showed up and after some very “macho” digging around the entrance he went in with her.  Both of them returned for two nights.  There is no real information on giant armadillo reproductive behaviour, gestation period or even number of young. It is estimated that the gestation period could be around 4 months. Zezinho and Isabelle were registered together on the 10th of June for the first time. Maybe in my next update  I will be sending you information on the birth of giant armadillos”

 

Of course, here at Act for Wildlife we can't wait for Arnaud's next update and will share it wilth you as soon as we can.  In the meantime here are some fabuolous photos from the Pantanal Giant Armadillo Project...

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Posted by Cat on 2nd November 2012

Comments

Phil

I am sending this short note on a fantastic experience we recently had with Arnaud and his team at the Giant Armadillo project in the Southern Pantanal in Brazil. Three of us, all mammal enthusiasts from the UK spent 3 nights at Baia das pedras with the guys there. We were made very welcome and Arnaud, Danilo and Gabriel worked incredibly hard to try and get us a sighting of the Giant Armadillo and we got really lucky on our 2nd night when an animal wandered out of the forest and across the track in front of us. The sighting lasted for maybe 20 seconds and for us was an unforgettable moment and the highlight of our trip to Brazil. During the daytime we were also shown Six-banded and Southern Naked-tailed Armadillos and one night Arnaud gave us a presentation on the project findings so far along with some amazing film footage of the animals. Baia Das Pedras is a remote and wonderful place and i would recommend any mammal enthusiasts to visit for a chance to encounter these rare and difficult to see species. Thank you for your continued support of this amazing project.

Posted by Phil on 9th November 2012

Umesh

Hi, your blog "Armadillo News" is so informative about wildlife conversation, Just I read, I like it , Thank you so much for sharing it!

Posted by Umesh on 13th December 2012

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