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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Tue Sep 8, 2020, 03:21 PM Sep 2020

In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo


BY SUZANA CAMARGO ON 8 SEPTEMBER 2020 |
Mongabay Series: Cerrado

  • Since 2010, the Giant Armadillo Project has been dedicated to researching the world’s largest armadillo, an animal that, despite its size and range across almost every country in South America, is one of the world’s least recognized animals.
  • The researchers have made key findings since then, among them: the burrows that the giant armadillo digs, which can be up to 5 meters (16 feet) long, serve as shelter from extreme temperatures for at least 70 other species, including birds, reptiles and mammals.
  • The species is categorized as vulnerable, with the advance of agribusiness — and the attendant deforestation and road construction that come with it — the main threat to the giant armadillo.




    Arnaud Desbiez, right, and fellow team members reintroduce a giant armadillo into nature. Image courtesy of the Giant Armadillo Project.

    Arnaud Desbiez leads a team of biologists, but their work is more reminiscent of that of paleontologists. They trek through the Brazilian biomes of the Cerrado grasslands, the Atlantic Forest, and the Pantanal wetlands, looking for any indication of the presence of an animal rarely seen despite its size: the giant armadillo.

    “It’s basically a forest ghost,” Desbiez says. “Most people don’t even know it. The connection with the giant armadillo is through indirect evidence. Finding one is like finding a needle in a haystack.”A

    According to Desbiez, one of the major threats to the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) is basically the lack of knowledge about it.

    Looking to change that is the Giant Armadillo Project, created in 2010 by two Brazilian organizations, the Institute for Ecological Research (IPÊ) and the Institute for the Conservation of Wild Animals (ICAS). They’ve made several discoveries about the largest of the 20 armadillo species in the world.

    More:
    https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/in-search-of-the-forest-ghost-south-americas-cryptic-giant-armadillo/

    Also posted in Science:
    https://www.democraticunderground.com/122871529
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    In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo (Original Post) Judi Lynn Sep 2020 OP
    It doesn't look like a giant to me. Looks about the size of the one sinkingfeeling Sep 2020 #1

    sinkingfeeling

    (51,279 posts)
    1. It doesn't look like a giant to me. Looks about the size of the one
    Tue Sep 8, 2020, 07:57 PM
    Sep 2020

    that cleans up the cat food I leave in the woods.

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