The Giant Armadillo Project employs two vets who have developed specialist knowledge of this rare creature. They have captured female of the species and take the chance to check her general health and collect samples of her hair and blood and other tissues. So little is still known about these remarkable creatures, every piece of data is precious.
TRANSCRIPT
The Giant Armadillo Project employs two vets who have developed specialized knowledge of this rare creature.
Arnaud Desbiez: Camila just applied the aesthetic and now we have to wait.
Arnaud has worked out that a giant armadillo's gestation period is five months.
But he has no way of telling whether or not Isabelle is expecting a baby.
However, he takes the chance to check her general health and collect samples of her hair and blood and other tissues.
A giant armadillo can weigh an astonishing 110 pounds.
Its armor-plated skin is made of a combination of horn and bone.
Flexible and strong, it makes an adult giant armadillo almost predator-proof.
Isabelle measures about 4 feet 8 inches long... and she's superbly equipped for digging.
Giant armadillo front claws can be more than 7 inches long... They give Isabelle the ability rip open termite mounds and and excavate burrows in really hard ground.
She is a living bulldozer.
Her back feet are shovel shaped and so efficient that, big though she is, she can disappear below ground in less than twenty minutes.
Every single part of a giant armadillo is fascinating for Arnaud.
Arnaud: I'm collecting hair off a giant armadillo - they have tiny little hairs between the scales.
Yet so little is still known about these remarkable creatures, every piece of data is precious.