Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Cabas­sous tatouay is found in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Ar­gentina. (Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Cabas­sous tatouay mainly in­hab­its tem­per­ate forests, but can be found in a va­ri­ety of dif­fer­ent en­vi­ron­ments in­clud­ing along rivers and in grass­land com­mu­ni­ties. They tol­er­ate sec­ond-growth habi­tats, but can­not sur­vive in agri­cul­tural areas. (Carter and En­car­nacao, 1983; da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004; Grz­imek, 2003; Linares, 1998; Nixon, 2004)

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los ap­pear very sim­i­lar to giant ar­madil­los ex­cept for their smaller size and lack of armor on their tails (which range from 90 to 200mm in length). Cabas­sous tatouay can be dis­tin­guised from C. unicinc­tus by its larger size, and be­cause C. tatouay has a larger, fun­nel-shaped ear that con­tin­ues past the head. Both the snout and the head are short and some­what broad, and their den­ti­tion for­mula is 9/8. Each fore­foot has five large claws; the largest claw ap­pears on the third digit.

The armor of greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los is dark brown or black with yel­low edges, their un­der­sides are gray­ish. There can be any­where from 10 to 13 move­able bands of armor on the back. The bod­ies of greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los are cov­ered with sparse, coarse hair. Their core body tem­per­a­ture ranges from 32 to 34 de­grees C and the basal meta­bolic rate of the re­lated species C. cen­tralis is 4.8170 W

Cabas­sous tatouay skulls have a nar­row mandible, with the height of the condy­loid process greater than the coro­noid process. The teeth of C. tatouay are peg-like, and mem­bers of this species posses tym­panic rings rather than bul­lae.

The feces of C. tatouay are pel­leted and com­posed of in­sect re­mains and soil. (Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004; Weigl, 2005; Wet­zel, 1980)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Average mass

  5.35 kg

  11.78 lb

• Average length

  63.7 cm

  25.08 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is cur­rently no in­for­ma­tion avail­able on the mat­ing sys­tems of C. tatouay or of the re­lated species C. unicinc­tus and C. cen­tralis. (Grz­imek, 2003)

Cabas­sous tatouay gives birth to one off­spring per year. There is no other avail­able in­for­ma­tion on the species, al­though the re­lated species C. cen­tralis pro­duces one off­spring that is born hair­less, and with closed eyes and pin­nae. The av­er­age weight of new­born off­spring of C. cen­tralis is 100g for males and 113g for fe­males. (Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004; Wet­zel, 1980)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Average number of offspring

  1

There is cur­rently no in­for­ma­tion avail­able on the parental in­vest­ment given by C. tatouay, or of re­lated species. As in all mam­mals, greater naked-tailed ar­madillo fe­males care for and nurse their young until they be­come in­de­pen­dent. (Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004)

• Parental Investment
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

No in­for­ma­tion could be found on the lifes­pan of C. tatouay, how­ever, a spec­i­men of the closely re­lated C. unicinc­tus lived seven and a half years in cap­tiv­ity and a C. cen­tralis spec­i­men lived eight years in cap­tiv­ity. (Weigl, 2005)

Be­hav­ior

Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los are noc­tur­nal for­agers, though they have been known to con­tinue to for­age until dawn. They are ex­ten­sively fos­so­r­ial, using the pow­er­ful claw on their third dig­its to dig holes into ter­mite mounds. Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los can com­pletely bury them­selves while dig­ging for prey.

When pur­sued C. tatouay runs rapidly, and, dur­ing lo­co­mo­tion, walks on the claws of the forefeet and the soles of their hind­feet. Their most fre­quent means of avoid­ing preda­tors, how­ever, is bur­row­ing com­pletely into the ground (which they can do in a mat­ter of min­utes). Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los have also been ob­served en­ter­ing water to es­cape pur­suit. (Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004)

Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los sleep in bur­rows, though the bur­rows are se­quen­tially oc­cu­pied by many dif­fer­ent in­di­vid­u­als; each ar­madillo spends only one night in a bur­row and never re­turns. Their bur­rows are gen­er­ally ob­long, such that the width of the open­ing is larger than the height, and their av­er­age slope is 47.7 de­grees. Bur­rows are most often dug in open ground or close to the base of an em­bank­ment and often have a strong, musky odor. (Carter and En­car­nacao, 1983; da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004; Grz­imek, 2003; Linares, 1998; Nixon, 2004)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

No in­for­ma­tion is cur­rently avail­able on the home range or ter­ri­tory size of C. tatouay.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

When han­dled, male C. tatouay make a grunt­ing sound sim­i­lar to that of a pig, but fe­males are gen­er­ally silent.

Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los have a well de­vel­oped sense of smell, which they use as their pri­mary way of lo­cat­ing prey hid­den in the soil or leaf lit­ter. (Cuel­lar and Noss, 2003; Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los are mostly myrme­cophagous, eat­ing pri­mar­ily ants and ter­mites. They use their large claws on the third digit to dig holes into in­sect mounds or rot­ting stumps, then use their long, sticky tongues to re­move prey from their tun­nels. While feed­ing on ants and ter­mites, C. tatouay may also in­jest in­ci­den­tal in­ver­te­brates found dur­ing for­ag­ing and soil. (Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; Grz­imek, 2003; Nixon, 2004)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

Pre­da­tion

Hu­mans are the most fre­quent preda­tors of greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los. Their most com­mon anti-preda­tor be­hav­ior is bur­row­ing un­der­ground to hide from pur­suit, which they do using the large claws on their third dig­its and by ro­tat­ing their cara­pace back and forth. (da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004; Grz­imek, 2003)

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Cabas­sous tatouay has an im­pact on the soil of its habi­tat due to its ex­ten­sive bur­row­ing and churn­ing of soil. It is an in­sec­ti­vore and may af­fect ter­mite and ant den­sity. (da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004)

• Ecosystem Impact
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Cabas­sous tatouay is some­times hunted and eaten. (da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Cabas­sous tatouay is often hunted in agri­cul­tural areas due to the dam­age caused by its ex­ces­sive bur­row­ing, which can dis­rupt crops. (da Fon­seca and Ry­lands, 2004)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The main threats to greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los are habi­tat de­struc­tion and fires, as well as per­se­cu­tion be­cause of their neg­a­tive ef­fects on agri­cul­ture. These ar­madil­los have been dri­ven to ex­tinc­tion in a num­ber of areas. No con­ser­va­tion ef­forts, how­ever, are cur­rently in place for greater naked-tailed ar­madil­los.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Lara Zajic (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Carter, T., C. En­car­nacao. 1983. Char­ac­ter­is­tics and use of bur­rows by four species of ar­madil­los in Brazil. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 64: 103-8.

Cuel­lar, E., A. Noss. 2003. Mam­if­eros del Chaco Y de la Chiq­ui­tania de Santa Cruz, Bo­livia. Bo­livia: Fun­da­cion para la Con­ser­va­cion del Bosque Chiq­ui­tano.

Eisen­berg, J., K. Red­ford. 1999. Mam­mals of the Neotrop­ics. Lon­don: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Grz­imek, B. 2003. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia Mam­mals. Ger­many: Thom­son Gale.

Hi­lario, S., V. Im­per­a­triz-Fon­seca. 2003. Ther­mal ev­i­dence of the in­va­sion of a stin­g­less bee nest by a mam­mal. Brazil­ian Jour­nal of Bi­ol­ogy, 63: 457-462.

Linares, O. 1998. Mam­if­eros de Venezuela. Cara­cas: So­ciedad Con­ser­va­cionista Audubon de Venezuela.

Nixon, J. 2004. "Cabas­sous Tatouay" (On-line). Ar­madil­los On­line. Ac­cessed March 18, 2006 at www.​msu.​edu/​~nixon­jos/ar­madillo/cabassous.​html.

Weigl, R. 2005. Longevity of Mam­mals in Cap­tiv­ity. Stuttgert: Kleine Senck­en­berg-Reihe 48.

Wet­zel, R. 1980. Re­vi­sion of the Naked-Tailed Ar­madil­los, Genus Cabas­sous Mc­Mur­trie. An­nals of Carnegie Mu­seum, 49: 323-357.

da Fon­seca, G., A. Ry­lands. 2004. Eden­tata. The Newslet­ter of the IUCN Eden­tate Spe­cial­ist Group, 6: 1-78.