Six-banded Armadillo

The six-banded armadillo, also called the yellow armadillo, is found in South America from Brazil and southern Suriname through Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay into northern Argentina. It lives in savannas, forests, cerrados and shrublands. Head-and-body length is typically 40 to 50 centimetres, and the pale yellow to reddish-brown shell is covered in sparse bristle-like hairs. An omnivore, it eats insects, ants, carrion, fruits, palm nuts and tubers. It is mostly solitary and an efficient digger, using its forefeet to dig U-shaped burrows and its hindfeet to throw the soil behind it. Its eyesight is poor, so it relies on smell.

About the six-banded armadillo

The six-banded armadillo is a medium-sized, armored South American mammal, also called the yellow armadillo. It is the only living member of the genus Euphractus and belongs to the subfamily that includes the hairy armadillos and the pichi. It lives in savannas, forests and scrub from Brazil to northern Argentina.

Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus described it in 1758, originally as Dasypus sexcinctus; today it is Euphractus sexcinctus. Fossils of Euphractus dug up in Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia date back to the Pleistocene. In Portuguese it goes by tatu peludo or tatu peba.

It is the largest armadillo in its subfamily, and the third largest armadillo overall, after the giant armadillo and the greater long-nosed armadillo. Head-and-body length is typically 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20 in), the tail adds 12 to 24 cm (4.7 to 9.4 in), and weight runs 3.2 to 6.5 kg (7.1 to 14.3 lb). An animal that has stored plenty of fat under its skin can reach 8 to 11 kg (18 to 24 lb).

The shell, or carapace, is pale yellow to reddish brown, never dark brown or black, which is where the name "yellow armadillo" comes from. It is made of scales of equal length and carries a scattering of buff to white bristly hairs, much sparser than the dense coat of the hairy armadillos. Six or seven movable bands cross the middle of the back and give the animal its name. The head is narrow, pointed and flattened, and covered in plates set in a definite pattern.

A few details set it apart from other armadillos. The tail is armored with two to four bands of plates underneath, and some of those plates have holes for scent glands, a feature found in no other armadillo except a few big hairy armadillos. The ears are 32 to 47 mm (1.3 to 1.9 in) long. Each forefoot has five separate toes with moderately developed claws, the third the longest. It has 9 pairs of teeth in the upper jaw and 10 in the lower, large and strong and backed by powerful chewing muscles.

Behavior and diet

Studies disagree on when the six-banded armadillo is active. Some describe it as diurnal, active mainly by day, while others find it nocturnal. Another account describes it as largely diurnal, with occasional activity at night.

It is an alert, mostly solitary animal. Unlike other armadillos, it runs when it senses danger and will bite if handled. The only time six-banded armadillos gather is to feed together on a carcass. Rivals fight with teeth and claws, and a mother whose young are disturbed turns aggressive and tries to hide them or move them somewhere safer. Scent from the glands at the base of the tail marks territory. One study in eastern Brazil put the average home range at 93.3 hectares (0.36 sq mi).

It is a strong digger. Its burrows are U-shaped with a single entrance, usually in dry ground, and may or may not be permanent homes. Measured burrows averaged 19 cm (7.5 in) high and 21 cm (8.3 in) wide at the opening, narrowing farther in and then widening again with depth so the armadillo can turn around. It digs with its front feet and kicks the loose soil behind it with its hind feet.

Six-banded armadillos are also good swimmers. They stay afloat by swallowing air, and their stored fat adds buoyancy.

The diet is broad. It eats carrion, small invertebrates, insects and ants, along with fruit (often from bromeliads), palm nuts and tubers. One account puts plant material at about 90 percent of the diet, and a study on a Brazilian ranch also found that plants dominated. It eats small vertebrates such as frogs too, and captive animals have killed large rats. Eyesight is poor, so the armadillo relies on smell to find food and detect predators. To eat larger prey or carrion, it stands on the food, grips it in its teeth and tears off pieces. It can store fat under the skin to get through times when food is scarce.

Births happen year-round. After a gestation of 60 to 64 days, the female gives birth to one to three young in a nest she builds. Newborns weigh 95 to 110 g (3.4 to 3.9 oz), with a soft, hairless shell, and can make soft clicks. Their eyes open at 22 to 25 days, they are weaned at about a month, and they mature by nine months. One six-banded armadillo lived for nearly 18 years.

Range and habitat

The six-banded armadillo has a wide range in South America east of the Andes. It runs from Brazil and southern Suriname in the northeast through Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay to northern Argentina in the southeast. Whether it occurs in Peru is doubted.

It adapts to many habitats: savannas, cerrado, shrublands, primary and secondary forest and deciduous forest. It also turns up on farmland and has been recorded as high as 1,600 m (5,200 ft) above sea level. A study in southeastern Brazil estimated about 0.14 animals per hectare and found that six-banded armadillos and southern naked-tailed armadillos regularly displace one another, which may help the two coexist.

Conservation status

The IUCN lists the six-banded armadillo as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (Abba, Lima and Superina, 2014), because of its wide distribution, tolerance of different habitats and presumably large populations. It also lives in several protected areas.

There are no major threats to its survival, though populations north of the Amazon River may be declining as savanna patches shrink and human settlement and industry expand. People hunt it for medicinal use and, in northeastern Brazil, for meat, although the meat is said to taste unpleasant. In some areas people refuse the meat because of a belief that the armadillo eats rotting human corpses. In Paraíba, Brazil, most locals in one study said nine-banded armadillo meat tasted better.

Farmers also trap six-banded armadillos with corn bait because the animals raid fields to eat sprouting corn and other tender plants.