Armadillo Teachers Resource Manual

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ARMADILLO
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GENERAL ARMADILLO INFORMATION
Who a re a rmadillos relat ed to?
Armadillos are mammals, meaning they have hair and their babies drink milk.
u Ask the class to name some other animals that are mammals. Make sure to include some of
their favorite animals like dogs, cats and horses, as well as humans.
Armadillos are a member of the order Xenarthra, which also includes anteaters and sloths. These
species have shared adaptations including a lack of teeth, reduction of teeth, or lack of tooth enamel;
specialized adaptations to their vertebrae; and typically have reduced fingers and toes with long sharp
claws.
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Dasypodidae (all armadillos)
Genus: (9 different genera)
Species: (21 different species)
What ma k es armadillos dif f eren t ?
It would be hard to mistake an armadillo for a sloth or an anteater for one obvious reason: the shell,
or carapace, which covers most of an armadillo’s body (all except the underbelly). This carapace is
made up of bony plates called scutes, that are covered with skin and serve as armor against potential
predators like jaguars. Armadillos are the only mammals in the world to have a shell.
u Ask the class to name some other animals that have shells. Examples: turtles and tortoises,
snails, crabs and lobsters.
Pre hi stori c past :
The existence of armadillos and their relatives the Xenarthrans can be traced back to the early Tertiary,
about 60 million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that Xenarthrans were first found in South America
and then expanded into Central America and parts of North America. Although once abundant, nearly
all the giant Xenarthrans went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene (11,700 years ago). These included
prehistoric armadillos called glyptodonts which could reach the size of a small automobile (think
Volkswagen Beetle). They had armored shells like the armadillos of today. There were also gigantic
ground sloths, too heavy to live in trees, that were over three meters (10 ft) long and 350 kilograms (770
pounds). Today, these giants are
Illustration of
a glyptodont by artist
Luccas Longo
gone, their extinction blamed
on a combination of climate
change and hunting by early
humans, who used glyptodont
shells as shelters. However,
almost forgotten by science,
one species reminiscent of this
amazing past still exists: the
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giant armadillo.
Cover Illustrations by Geraldo Franca Jr.
Size comparison: man,
glyptodont, modern armadillos
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GIANT ARMADILLOS
How bi g i s a GIANT armadillo?
1.5 meters (5 feet) long and 50 kilograms (110 lbs)
Whe re d o g ian t armadillos live?
Range: Giant armadillos are found in 12 countries throughout South America, east of the Andes
Mountains. Including French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname, and in large parts of Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil.
Habitat: Giant armadillos live in a variety of habitats, ranging from primary rain forest (forest that
has not been affected by human activities) to savannahs, with limited human disturbance.
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Giant armadillo range map
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Armadillo range map (all 21 species)
What d oes a gian t armadillo eat ?
Bugs! Giant armadillos eat a diet consisting almost entirely of ants and termites. Typically animals
that eat primarily insects are referred to as insectivores, however animals that specialize in eating
ants and termites are distinguished as being myrmecophagous. This specialized diet has caused giant
armadillos to have some interesting adaptations including very large front claws for digging in termite
mounds, a long sticky tongue to collect insects, and reduced teeth since teeth are not necessary in an
Termite mound that
has been foraged by an
armadillo
insect-only diet.
u Have the class name some other animals that eat bugs. Examples: lizards, frogs, dragon flies
(eat mosquitoes), bats (eat flying insects like moths and mosquitoes)
u Ask the class if they can think of any special adaptations these animals have for catching or
eating insects.
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GIANT ARMADILLOS
Natura l Beh avior:
A house fit for an armadillo
Giant armadillos dig burrows that they call home. These deep burrows offer a safe resting place for
the giant armadillos during the day, when they sleep. Giant armadillos are nocturnal, meaning they
are awake at night. Because the burrows are deep in the ground the soil helps to keep their home at a
constant temperature, like insulation and a thermostat does in your house. An armadillo only lives in
the same burrow for a few days, then they move on and dig another, leaving their old burrow for other
animals to use.
u Can the class name other animals that dig burrows to live in? Examples: gophers and moles,
some types of lizards, tortoises, rabbits, and weasels.
Home Range and Population Density:
Only a few giant armadillos will share the same habitat. In a way you could say giant armadillos don’t
really like having neighbors. Each armadillo will live in a home range estimated to be between 10 to
30 square kilometers (3.9-11.6 square miles), on average 15 square kilometers (5.8 square miles). This
is roughly the same size as 2,ooo professional football (soccer) fields! Like all animals giant armadillos
require specific resources to survive; food, water and shelter. For giant armadillos this means food
in the form of ants and termites, water in the form of puddles, ponds or streams, and shelter in the
form of appropriate substrate for them to dig a burrow. All of these resources are found within a giant
armadillos home range.
Uni que Charact erist ics and Adaptat ion s:
Listening and sniffing out bugs
Armadillos have an excellent sense of smell and hearing to help find their favorite food items, ants
and termites, which live underground. Eyesight, however, doesn’t offer them much of an advantage in
finding their food, so their sense of sight is not very good.
Built in armor
All armadillos have shells, also known as a carapace. The shell is made of small bone plates, called
Giant armadillos use
their impressive claws to
dig burrows and break
into termite mounds
scutes that are covered in skin. The shell helps to protect armadillos from predators, animals such as
dogs and large cats, like pumas (mountain lions) or jaguars. When a giant armadillo feels threatened it
will dig a hole as fast as it can to hide inside.
Digging machines
Giant armadillos dig burrows and break into termite mounds. Termite mounds are as hard as concrete,
but a giant armadillo can destroy a termite mound in five minutes! In order to do this they need special
“tools”, which in the giant armadillos case means claws that can grow to be 20 cm (almost 8 inches)
long! Each front foot has four fingers. Imagine if we combined our ring finger and middle finger to
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make one finger, that’s what a giant armadillo’s hand would look like. The largest claw is located on
their third finger, where our ring and middle finger are located.
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GIANT ARMADILLOS
What i s a g ian t armadillo scared of ?
Natural predators of giant armadillos are big cats like puma and jaguars, but people are the biggest
threat.
Giant armadillos are sensitive to habitat destruction. If people cause too much disruption to the
habitat, like cutting down trees and burning the land to make room for farming, the armadillos can’t
survive. In some areas people eat giant armadillos as food. And in other places people think they are
bad luck, so they kill giant armadillos if they see them. Sometimes people poison termite and ant
nests to get rid of the insects, but that means armadillos don’t have any more food, and they might
accidentally eat the poison too.
Gi a nt a rm adillos are good for t h e en vironment!
Giant armadillos are ecosystem engineers. Ecosystem Engineers are animals that modify their
environment, and as a result, create habitats that are utilized by other species of plants and animals.
Beavers are some of the best known ecosystem engineers due to their natural behavior of cutting down
trees and damming rivers. These beaver dams then create flooded areas of water that are utilized by a
multitude of animal and plant species.
A peccary exiting a
giant armadillo burrow
Giant armadillos are ecosystem engineers because they dig large burrows. They only use the burrows
for several days before they move on to another area and dig a new burrow. When they leave their old
burrows behind, the area is used by as many as 24 other animal species! Some animals use the inside of
the burrow to escape extreme temperatures (the temperatures inside a burrow remain more constant
that the outside air), as shelter from predators, and even to hide their young. Other animals use the
sand mound outside the burrow to sun themselves or forage for insects. Pictures of species using giant
armadillo burrows can be found in the Lesson 3 resource.
Animals that use giant armadillo burrows:
Other armadillo species (six-banded, nine-banded, naked-tailed armadillos), tamanduas (small
anteaters), tortoises, collared peccaries (pig species), ocelots (wild cat species), tayras (related to the
weasel), raccoons and their relatives, large and small lizard species, rodents and birds.
Animals that use the sand mound of giant armadillos:
Tapirs (large species related to horses and rhinoceros), foxes, white-lipped peccaries (large pig species),
An ocelot emerges from
an armadillo burrow
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bush dogs, puma/mountain lions, giant anteaters, lizards, birds and rodents.
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GIANT ARMADILLO PROJECT
The Giant Armadillo Project is located in the Pantanal of Brazil. The project aims to establish the first
long-term ecological study of giant armadillos as well as other species of Xenarthra in the Brazilian
Pantanal and to use these species as ambassadors for biodiversity conservation through education,
outreach initiatives, and media campaigns. The project focuses on researching the ecology and
biology of giant armadillos to understand their function in the ecosystem; research on armadillo
health including all other Xenarthra species present in the study area; capacity building and training
of biologists, veterinarians and professionals interested in conservation; environmental education
using giant armadillos and other Xenarthra as ambassadors for biodiversity conservation; as well as
running campaigns and outreach for key environmental threats (habitat alteration, use of poison on
termite mounds).
The Pantanal ecosystem
The Pantanal covers 210,000 square km (81,000 square miles) of land. The average rainfall reaches
1400 mm (55 inches), most of which falls during the months of October-March. Heavy rainfall results in
seasonal flooding resulting in the world’s largest wetland, ten times larger than the Florida everglades.
Located just 15-20 degrees south of the equator the climate of the Pantanal is tropical and semi-humid
with an average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). This unique ecosystem
is home to a huge variety of plant and animal species including 3500 plant, 656 bird, 325 fish,
159 mammal, 53 amphibian, and 98 reptile species.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP!
What ca n people do to h elp prot ect gian t ar ma d il lo s ?
Learn more about giant armadillos and tell your friends!
You can learn more about the giant armadillo by going to the Giant Armadillo Project’s website at
http://giantarmadillo.org.br/ . The site has information about giant armadillos, resources for educators
and fun activities for kids. Tell your friends and family! Most people don’t know giant armadillos exist.
Share this amazing species with your friends and family and let them know how important it is to protect giant armadillos. You could even include giant armadillos in a school report or science fair project.
Support armadillo research and conservation.
Support the Giant Armadillo Project or your local zoo conservation department, through donations
or by volunteering. These projects are working to protect giant armadillos and their habitats in South
America.
Become an “armadillo ambassador” in your country!
Help your friends and family practice safe behaviors that help giant armadillos and all
armadillo species.
Do not hunt armadillos. In Brazil, it is against the law to kill giant armadillos. Keep them alive so that
they can continue to build burrows that help other animals.
Do not poison insects. The poisons used on ant and termite mounds can injure armadillos and other
species, like birds and anteaters, by making them sick. The poison also kills insects that are good for the
environment like bees, which pollinate crops.
Drive carefully. Armadillos don’t see very well, so they can’t see cars when they are crossing the road.
Use caution when driving and slow down to wait for armadillos to cross.
Do not burn the land. When clearing fields for farming, many people burn the land. Armadillos can
hide in their burrows to escape the fire but the smoke will fill their burrows and suffocate them.
Buy ecologically friendly products
Shade grown coffee helps sustain rainforests, reduces pesticide use and promotes greater
biodiversity than other coffee growing techniques, and it often tastes better. Look on the coffee
label for words like fair trade, certified organic, or bird friendly.
Sustainable chocolate is very similar to shade grown coffee. Sustainable chocolate reduces
deforestation and pesticide use, promoting biodiversity. Look for labels that indicate the chocolate is shade grown, organic, or fair trade. Additional information on sustainable chocolate can
be found at http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Live-Green/GreenPurchasing/Chocolate.aspx
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Illustration by Geraldo Franca Jr.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP!
(continued)
Certified bananas through the Rainforest Alliance ensure that bananas have been grown under
strict criteria preventing deforestation, maintaining standards for waste management and
recycling, reduced use of pesticides, and providing decent pay and conditions for workers. Learn
more about the Rainforest Alliance’s banana certification at http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
agriculture/crops/fruits/bananas
Certified lumber is sustainably harvested lumber that ensures the long term health of a forest.
Trees are selectively cut and replanted, preventing clear cutting which destroys sections of forests
and habitats. Look for lumber certified through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Use environmentally friendly pest control
One of the easiest ways to help armadillos and other insect eating animals is to stop using insecticides,
poisons that kills insects. Insecticides often kill all insects that are in the area, even good insects like
butterflies and dragonflies. There are lots of natural ways to remove pest insects from unwanted places
without using poison: such as netting, non-toxic sprays like vinegar and soap, or even something as
simple as petroleum jelly. To see some suggestions on how to organically remove pests look at the
following website or do an online search for “natural insecticides” or “organic gardening”
http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Organic-Gardening.aspx .
Encourage your family and friends to use environmentally friendly pest removal too, it’s good for us,
good for animals and good for the environment!
ARMADILLOS APPRECIATE
YOUR HELP!
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Special thanks to Kristen Waldron, Director of Conservation Education/Integration at the Philadelphia Zoo, and Laurie
Cummins, Education Manager at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, for their assistance and guidance in creating these materials.
GLOSSARY
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Adaptations – changes to a plant or animal that helps it to survive
Extinct – no longer in existence; the species has ended or died out.
in its environment.
Food Chain – a way of showing how food energy flows from one
Average – a central value of a set of numbers. Determined by
organism to the next, starting with the sun.
adding quantities together and then divided by the number of
Food Web – shows how energy flows between many different
quantities used.
plants and animals in an ecosystem; a food web is made up of
Behavior – the action or response of an organism to a stimulus or
many related food chains.
its environment.
Forage – to search for food or provisions
Best Fit Line – a straight line that best represents the direction
Habitat – the place where a plant or animal finds everything it
and data on a scatter plot.
needs to survive, including food, water, shelter and a place to raise
Biodiversity – the diversity of plant and animal species within an
young.
environment.
Habitat fragmentation – the partitioning of larger habitats
Biomes – regions around the world made up of similar
into smaller more isolated areas, often resulting from human
ecosystems.
development and negatively impacting the abundance and
Camera Trap – a remotely activated camera equipped with a
diversity of plants and animals in the area.
sensor that triggers a photo to be taken.
Herbivore – animals that eat plants
Carapace – a bony shield located on the back of an animal, made
Home Range – the area an animal uses for its daily activities.
of many dermal scutes.
An animal’s home range is an area within the habitat where it is
Carnivore – animals that eat other animals
found.
Coexist – to exist together or at the same time; to live in peace
Insecticides – a chemical substance used to kill insects
with each other.
Insectivore – an animal that eats primarily insects.
Data Point – is an individual item of factual information found in
Myrmecophagous – animals that specialize in eating ants
a data set.
and termites
Decomposer – a living organism that breaks down and recycles
Nocturnal – active at night
nutrients from dead animals and plants.
Omnivore – animals that eat plants and animals
Diurnal – active during the day.
Scutes – individual bony plates which are covered in skin.
Ecosystem – the interaction of all living and non-living elements
Shelter – something that covers or affords protection to animals
in an area.
Ecosystem Engineer – a plant or animal that changes its physical
surroundings and in doing so, creates and modifies habitats that
influence other species.
Enrichment – the addition of items to enhance an animal’s
environment by encouraging natural behaviors.
Ethogram – an inventory of the behaviors and actions exhibited
by an animal; ethograms are a way of collecting behavioral
information on animals in an organized format.
Sustainable – the ability to maintain at a certain rate or level;
the ability to continue with minimal long-term effects on the
environment.
Telemetry – the measurement and transmission of data using
remote sources such as radio waves.
Thermal Refuge – a place that provides shelter or protection from
temperature extremes
Wildlife Corridors – areas that connect two or more areas of
similar habitat