RZSS Giant Armadillo Blog: Stranded in the Pantanal

17/05/2016 in Conservation

In January our team set out to the Pantanal to check on our monitored giant armadillos and giant anteaters at the Baia das Pedras ranch. Gabriel Massocato (project biologist), Camila Luba (consultant veterinarian) and a volunteer veterinarian drove out to the ranch. As it had not rained for several weeks, the journey was fairly easy. Once they got there, however, it started raining non-stop.

Research work becomes difficult in these conditions, as our equipment is sensitive to humidity, the receiver can be ruined if it gets wet, it becomes difficult to check cameras and generally, everything takes more time. The team did manage to check on the animals and capture some data; however, at times they simply had to wait for the rain to stop.

It never did.

Luckily, I was still able to maintain communication with them. As the Pantanal became alarmingly flooded,  I started contacting ranches in the area to see if we could hire a tractor to guide them out of the ranch. Unfortunately no tractor was available. Worst of all, I learned that one of the wooden bridges we rely on to access the Pantanal had been washed away and could take several days or weeks to repair. I therefore had to hire a small plane to fly out and rescue the team while leaving our truck at the ranch. This is why we need contingency funds in our budget, and it was well spent as  the rain continued for several days after they left the ranch.  It is quite a scary feeling knowing the team is stranded and it was such a relief to have everyone back safe and sound.

 

In February we urgently had to return to the ranch as the batteries on the GPS units carried by the giant armadillos would run out, thereby making them impossible to locate. Gabriel Massocato set out for the ranch with Emilien Dautrey, a volunteer from France. Work was challenging to say the least.

Our study area is divided in half by a flood plain which had overflowed making it impossible to cross by truck. This means they had to swim across it and do all the work by foot, or via a quad bike which they managed to float across. Water levels were at a record high and only the forested areas remained relatively dry.

Murundum islands, which are small elevations characterised by a central termite mound and Cerrado type vegetation, were all flooded. These are actually giant armadillos’ favourite habitat. All the monitored animals were now using only the thin dry forest strips as all the burrows in other areas were flooded. Two out of three GPS units were retrieved. However, the GPS unit belonging to Houdini was silent.

Gabriel searched and searched for several days. He went to the most recent burrows Houdini had used and most were flooded. We believe that the GPS unit fell off in one of these burrows and stopped working after it had remained submerged for several days. What a huge loss of data. Houdini is appropriately named as he is one of the escape artist armadillos within the project. He escaped from a trap, broke through our wooden box and is notoriously hard to catch.

In December 2014 we had to abandon his capture as he did not leave his burrow and the expedition had ended. Somehow this time the GPS we managed to fix on him vanished. When you consider the expense of the GPS and the time and effort it takes to catch him (we had not caught him in over a year), then the loss of this precious data is a real blow to our efforts. We were all crushed.

Due to the severity of the flooding, we are only now (as of 18 May) returning to the Pantanal. As I write this report the flood plain continues to be impossible to cross and it may be that even now, we will still not be able to access this part of our study area. On a more positive note, we will have a film crew joining us during this May expedition in order to document the project. If nothing else, this should be interesting and I look forward to updating you on this in future blogs.

All the best from Brazil!

Arnaud