After reading the article, you can learn a lot about these amazing animals that have inhabited our planet for 55 million years! The content of the article:
- Habitat
- Appearance and behavior
- Life span and reproduction
- Battleships at the Moscow Zoo
The Spaniards often call the bristly armadillos armadillos, which means "carrying armor." And this is justified, because the battleship is almost entirely covered with a shell. Not only his body, but even his tail and legs are protected in this way.
Habitat of battleships
Areolas of distribution of these animals - Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina. Locals have long exterminated armadillos, since their meat is considered a delicacy, but the population of these animals is quite large, so they are not on the verge of extinction. Among some local residents there is a belief about the magical power of armadillos, so they kill animals in order to make amulets from their bones.
But not only because of this, the Armadilles die. Armadillos are nocturnal. During the day they hide in dug holes, and by night they come out from there to the surface to warm up and look for food. Often, returning back, they cannot find their former shelter and dig new passages and holes. As a result, the fields and lands are covered with depressions made by armadillos. Grazing horses and cows fall into these holes and break their legs, which, of course, is not to the liking of their owners. This is another reason for the destruction of battleships.
Despite their slowness, when pursuing bristly armadillos, they try to quickly burrow into the ground, and they do it perfectly. If for some reason the animal does not have time to dig a hole and hide from danger, then it snuggles to the ground, hiding relatively soft parts of the body under the shell, making it inaccessible to the predator.
Cars pose a mortal danger to battleships. This is due to the bouncing reflex of animals. Being underground, hearing the noise of a car passing over it, it jumps high, almost vertically, while hitting the lower part of a moving car, which ends sadly for the animal.
Appearance and behavior of battleships
It clearly demonstrates what an battleship looks like, photo. It shows that this animal is brownish-yellow in color. The upper part of the head, tail, back are covered with a carapace, which consists of 4 and 6-angular scutes. In the center of the back there are so-called belts - transverse rows of movable plates. Usually there are 6 or 7 of them, they have an oblong-quadrangular shape.
Under the eyes, which are located on a wide and flat head, there are also shields, but vertical. Irregularly shaped 6-sided scales are located in front of the forelimbs on the upper part of the legs. Armadillos have long curved claws on their front paws, which help these animals to dig holes and passages underground. On the hind and front legs - 5 claws.
Even in the part of the body where there are no strong armor scales, the skin is quite strong. She is wrinkled, warty, covered with coarse coarse hair. Such hair grows on the back, making its way between the rows of plates. That is why these armadillos are called "bristly".
Armadilles have 16-18 teeth, each jaw has 8-9 teeth. Interestingly, the teeth have no enamel coating or roots. The animal has a long tail, on average 24 cm, the body of an adult can reach half a meter in length. The body temperature of armadillos can vary. It depends on the air temperature.
The nocturnal and underground lifestyle has led to the fact that the sense of smell and hearing is best developed in bristly armadillos, and vision cannot boast of such acuity. Armadillos need oxygen less than many other mammals of the same size. The airways of Armadillos are voluminous, they are a reservoir for air. Therefore, these animals may not breathe for several minutes, which is very beneficial for a semi-underground lifestyle.
All these qualities helped the armadillo species survive in the era of natural disasters, so this genus has lived for 55 million years! No wonder these animals are called "pocket dinosaurs." After all, the distant ancestors of armadillos lived in the era of dinosaurs.
Life expectancy and reproduction of armadillos
As well as for marsupials, the presence of a latency period is characteristic of the females of armadillos. In this case, after fertilization, the embryo is suspended for some time in development, being in the mother's body. The pregnancy itself in females lasts about two months, most often there are 2 litters in a year.
As a result, each usually gives birth to 2 cubs - a male and a female. They are already sighted and similar to their parents - they are also covered with a horny shell, but it is still soft, but it will soon harden. The mother feeds them with milk for a month, then the cubs begin to leave the burrow and gradually become accustomed to adult food.
At 2 years old, bristly armadillos become sexually mature and continue their genus further. Bristly armadillos live in natural conditions for an average of 10-16 years. In captivity, this figure is higher, there were cases when these animals lived up to 23 years.
Bristly armadillos at the Moscow Zoo
If you do not plan to go to South America, but want to see these amazing animals with your own eyes, then visit the Moscow Zoo. The first similar animal could be seen here back in 1964. But the animal did not live here permanently, but was brought in for a while, as part of the "visiting" animals. He was a participant in lectures with a demonstration of animals.
In 1975, the “visiting” group arrived at the zoo again. Among them were a female and a male of nine-banded armadillos. But the expected offspring from them in captivity was not received. In 1985, 7 bristly battleships, who arrived from Buenos Aires, were included in this "animal" delegation. Then they were transferred to the Riga Zoo.
Since 2000, armadillos have been living in the zoo on a permanent basis. They were lodged with sloths in the "Not full-toothed" enclosure, with whom they get along well. This pavilion is located between the old and the new territory, near the crossing bridge.
One interesting feature of the bristly armadillo led to a misunderstanding. The animal simply loved to sleep on its back, during such a rest it quickly moved its legs. The visitors thought that the battleship was bad, and rushed to find the zoo staff for help. This has happened many times. Therefore, the staff decided to make an inscription, it says that the animal just loves to sleep on its back, and now there are no such misunderstandings.
It is interesting to observe how sloths very slowly, barely noticeably move up the branches in the aviary, and armadillos quickly run along the ground. In the zoo, bristly armadillos are fed with eggs, meat, milk, cottage cheese, dried fruits, fresh fruit, and cereals. All this is mixed, other components are added, and then the animals eat this treat with pleasure.
Watch the video about battleships:
[media = https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = _67NWsEkCMQ] Often, bristly armadillos dig their burrows under termites and anthills, destroying these insects. They also eat beetles, earthworms, larvae. These armadillos eat and plant food - fallen fruits, roots and other parts of plants. They can even eat carrion. Therefore, we can say that they are almost omnivorous.
