“There was no doubt, we had a culotapado,” said Bustillos, using the local name for the Chaco fairy armadillo, grateful to observe one of the rarest species in the world, alive. One hour along the paved road, their route took them onto a dirt road in the direction of the site of one of the great battles of the liberation of South America, and the setting of an important battle in the independence of Argentina - La Florida, where the López’s ranch is located, at Cabezas, near the entrance to the Parabanó Protected Area.Īfter an hour-and-a-half on the dirt road, they were meeting López and being led toward a bucket of sand that contained what Bustillos was able to confirm was a unique find - the form of its shield-like tail, the small, near-cylindrical body, a notably short neck, the small ears and beady eyes, the light pink color. Photo by Ilosuna, licensed via Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic license.Įarly the next morning, the team was headed east, up Bolivia’s Highway 7, Doble Via La Guardia, toward the mining town of Camiri in the transition area between Amazonia and the Chaco dry forest. Landscape of the Gran Chaco, habitat of the elusive Chacoan fairy armadillo. “I want to go,” Mcphee responded immediately. In a matter of one hour, Bustillos called Mcphee to put together a team to go see the animal and register it officially. López contacted the biologist who had investigated and recorded the find. It seemed like what they had was just like it, making it one of the rarest animals in the world. Among myriad options online, she found an article about a peculiar little animal found drowned after torrential rains near the town of Warnes north of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city and economic engine. It was a rare living thing, alright, but just how rare he had no idea.īack at the ranch, he and his wife Ana Laura Moreno set out to find out what they had in their hands. López emptied a bag of corn and used it to pick the strange little critter up. It did not run fast, but it did begin to burrow. It was a weird and extraordinarily odd little animal, whose appearance did not fit any known category or explanation, a truly unusual creature. Stopping to investigate, he leaned over to take a look. The night before at around 6 pm, in the region of La Florida in the westernmost part of Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia, farmer Milton López Viruez was driving his truck slowly on the sandy road of his farm when his headlights shone on something pink in front of his truck. Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Halle 7, 1863, S. Illustration by Hermann Burmeister (1807-1892) – Hermann Burmeister: Ein neuer Chlamyphorus. Alternatively called tatu or c oseberu by those in the cities, or “the cryer” by its 18th-century discoverers, it is also known to science as Burmeister’s armadillo. They were after a holy grail of conservationists - a live sighting and registration of one of the rarest of the rare armadillos in the world, the elusive Chacoan fairy armadillo ( Calyptophractus retusus), also known as the greater fairy armadillo, the mythical culotapado of local lore, or tatujeikurajoyava to the Guaranis of the Bolivian Chaco. It would take another hour and a half to get to their destination. They thought they might get stuck in the mud, but there was no thought of turning back. It was 8 a.m.Īt the wheel was Nick Mcphee, Australian conservationist-turned Bolivian ecotourism uber-specialist, and with him were Bolivian biologist Huáscar Bustillos Cayoja, environmental impact social biologist Paula Silva, and professional photographer Ivan Gutierrez. Rain that began as soon as they left the pavement was so thick that the road, compacted by traffic, became slippery, and the tires dug-in. The four-wheel-drive bumped over a rutted road. “This was a dream come true to see this animal,” one expert told Mongabay, since such sightings top the wishlists of mammal enthusiasts around the world.The species uses its huge claws and strong front legs to ‘swim’ into the Chaco’s sandy soils: its armor and tail are similarly adapted to facilitate their subterranean lifestyle.Seldom seen, the animal–which lives among the Gran Chaco dry forests of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay–has a population that is considered ‘data deficient’ by the IUCN, and is likely quite small. A sighting of one of the rarest mammals in the world, the elusive Chacoan fairy armadillo, was recently documented by a team of Bolivian biologists.
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