RZSS Giant Armadillo Blog: When Eric met Eric

15/01/2016 in Conservation

The December expedition can only be described as a rollercoaster! It started off with complications over staffing, with lead veterinarian Danilo Kluyber unable to make it and his last minute replacement Camila Luba unable to join the expedition until a few days in. I also had to visit the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland in Edinburgh and couldn’t join the team until a few days in either. Therefore Gabriel Massocato, along with a vet trainee, headed out on his own to locate all the animals before we arrived.

This should not have been a problem, but field work is always full of surprises and the unexpected happens at the craziest moments. About 15 km before arriving at the ranch the convoy of cars took a break. The convoy included the tapir team as well as our kids in two other trucks. Gabriel walked around as they took a break and to his surprise found an active giant armadillo burrow. He could not believe his eyes… a new giant armadillo in a place we had not worked in before. What amazing luck! Or was it bad luck? He was alone without a veterinarian. I received a frantic message as I was having dinner with Sarah Robinson, RZSS’s Head of Conservation Programmes, at her house in Edinburgh.

Thankfully Renata Santos, the lead veterinarian of the tapir team, worked with us for over a year before becoming a full time tapir veterinarian and had experience in giant armadillo anaesthesia and fitting a GPS. The tapir team worked their schedule so that Renata could take some time off to give us a hand. We are so grateful to them to have made this procedure possible. It took Gabriel three nights to capture the animal: it dug away from the trap, escaped from him as he tried to manually catch him, did not come out one night…. but in the end Gabriel was successful. I cannot stress enough how tough this was for him, being on his own without a team. Reminds me of our first year on the project, but ... He did it! Congratulations Gabriel!

The new juvenile male was called Eric in honour of Eric Bairrão Ruivo, Science, Collection and Conservation Director for Beauval Zoo in France and Conservation Manager for the Beauval Conservation Association (Beauval Nature) who have been supporting us for several years now. Eric was visiting with his wife and daughter and spent almost a week participating in both armadillo and tapir projects as well as enjoying the ranch. It was a real treat to have Eric in the field with us. We calculated that we have known each other for 21 years!

So much happened during the December expedition that I’ll save the armadillo recaptures and Cerrado update until next time.

Happy New Year to everyone.

All the best,

Arnaud and the Giant Armadillo Conservation Project team

Photos by Diego Lizcano