The end of a busy year for the Giant Armadillo Conservation Program

17/01/2020 in Conservation

 

A view of the Pantanal

Dear Supporters of the Giant Armadillo Conservation Program,

The end of the year has, as always, been a busy one. Our last expedition in the Pantanal was exhausting, as it seemed everything was much harder than it should be! It was just one of those expeditions where nothing went according to plan. Giant armadillos that were usually located in a few hours suddenly took several days! A new animal was found but refused to enter our trap and was even spooked by our camera traps! This had never happened before. When trying to recapture one of our animals the trap did not close due to a root. A tire burst in one truck and the other broke down. The tow truck that came to rescue us got stuck and it took two days to bring the truck back. The list is long, and it was actually unbelievable that so many things could go wrong. Most incredibly, despite all this, we still managed to complete all the objectives set out for the expedition! 

Views of the Pantanal after the fires

It was a strange vision to see the Pantanal recovering from the severe fires earlier in the year. Bright green shoots bursting out of blacked branches and trunks. New grasses concealing the ashes. Many landscapes were unrecognisable to us and a smell of wet coal and ashes still permeated the air. It will never cease to surprise me how resilient nature can be, and I am sure that with time the landscapes will recover, but it is still a bit upsetting to observe. Once again we are very relieved that none of our giant armadillos died in the fire. All of them seem to be healthy and fine. We even recorded our juvenile giant armadillo, Sara, hanging out with her mother Bianca. As Sara is estimated to be between 15-18 months old we will be able, to learn more about dispersal and parental care beyond 24 months. We are very excited about this! 

Bianca and Sara

At the end of November, our education team was present at the first Campo Grande Education Fair. We took the opportunity to present the proposal of educational kits for next year and invited more teachers to develop the Tatu Canastra project in their schools. Many teachers signed our pre-registration list. Next year a new educator is being hired to work full time in Campo Grande on these initiatives so that Andreia can divide her time between our other sites: Uberlandia, home of the anteater re-introduction project, and Rio Doce State Park, the site of our new giant armadillo project. 

Giant armadillo nose sniffing in the holding box

As we look forward into 2020, it’s incredible to think that the Giant Armadillo Conservation Program will be 10 years old! For the past two years we have been working very hard on data analysis. We want to have all the papers providing basic information on Giant armadillos available by July 2020. I am very happy to report that four papers were published in 2019, covering morphology, spatial ecology, reproduction, and use of camera traps to identify individuals. None of this would have been possible without Nina Attias who has been working with us for the past two years, we would like to say a big thank you to the Jacksonville Zoo for sponsoring half of Nina’s salary. A habitat selection paper is currently being submitted, and least three other papers are planned so we have lots to look forward to. The mystery of the giant armadillo is finally unravelling! 

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Giant armadillo release with Lucas Mendez

Between both armadillos and the Anteaters and Highways Project, there is always so much going on, and 2020 is set to be as busy as ever! Soon we will be launching the new giant armadillo project in the Rio Doce State Park to protect the last population of the species in the Atlantic forest. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners for their help and support. All this work depends on grants and donations. We could not be more grateful 

All the best for the year ahead. 

Arnaud and the team.

 

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We would like to thank the players of People’s Postcode Lottery for their generous support which has helped this project.