Nature (1982–…): Season 35, Episode 14 - Hotel Armadillo - full transcript
♪♪
♪♪
In the heart of Brazil
lives an animal so elusive
that until recently,
nothing was known
of its life in the wild.
The giant armadillo.
But now its life has
been caught on camera...
Nobody gets to see this.
♪♪
There's the baby.
And unique, intimate
behavior revealed.
Even their burrows have
become an attraction of their own.
This is it. This is it. This
is what we're looking for.
They're in high demand
as exclusive hotels,
where peculiar
guests check in and out
at all hours of
the day and night.
♪♪
The giant armadillo,
always digging,
is busy making room
for a forgotten world
all across Brazil's Pantanal.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Brazil's Pantanal is a
place unlike any other.
Covering more than
80,000 square miles,
this is the largest tropical
wetland in the world.
Unlike the lands
around the Amazon,
which are covered
by high forest,
the Pantanal consists
of vast expanses
of flooded grassland,
with only here and there
a patch of dry savanna
or a stretch of trees.
Prone to intense
drought and severe floods,
this is a landscape of extremes.
A huge diversity of
species lives here...
including one of
the most secretive...
The giant armadillo.
Solitary, nocturnal,
and extremely rare,
it digs huge underground
burrows up to 20 feet deep
and spends three-quarters
of its life in them underground.
Until recently, we
knew virtually nothing
of their lives in the wild.
But Arnaud Desbiez,
the founder of the
Giant Armadillo Project,
has changed that.
When I started the
Giant Armadillo Project,
I had already been working
and living in the Pantanal
for eight years.
But during those eight years,
I had never seen
a giant armadillo.
It was a species I
really wanted to see.
Even finding signs
of giant armadillos
is extremely difficult.
But gradually, Arnaud
started to build up
a picture of their hidden world.
We couldn't leave
any stone unturned.
And little by little, yes, we
did start finding evidence.
And it was so exciting
when we got our first picture.
That was an indescribable
moment because there it was.
The species we were
working so hard to find...
We couldn't believe it.
It's so hard to believe
that this magnificent giant
is living right beside us.
It's right there.
But you don't see it.
It's May...
The start of Arnaud's
research year.
But this season's
expedition could be different.
He has used camera traps before,
but they have only
given him brief glimpses
of the animal in which
he is so interested.
Now Arnaud has
newly developed gear
that could give him
more continuous pictures
from above and below ground.
The team has found
the burrow of a female
that they've named Tracy,
in honor of the first giant
armadillo researcher,
Tracy Carter.
♪♪
The new camera rig
can record pictures
by day and by night.
It is switched on by
the tiniest movements,
and the team are hoping
that the animals themselves
will trigger recordings
that will reveal
new things about them.
There are good reasons
why giant armadillos
are so rarely seen.
Their senses of smell
and hearing are acute,
and they are exceptionally
wary of people and cameras.
The locals still
consider these animals
to be supernatural beings...
Monsters that come up
from deep within the earth.
The cameras are rigged,
but will Tracy appear
and switch them on?
♪♪
Okay, okay. Tracy is coming out.
Ah, this is beautiful.
Armadillos are one of the
most ancient of living mammals
and first appeared some
50 million years ago.
The giant species is still found
in many parts of South America,
but there are so few of them
that images like
these are truly rare.
It's a major achievement
for Arnaud and his team.
So, Tracy is investigating
her surroundings.
Scent is the key sense
for giant armadillos.
So she's sniffing
the air around her.
The burrow is her safety net,
so if anything goes wrong,
if she smells
anything out of place,
if she has any concern,
she can just run back.
Just to be able to
see this right now
is just amazing.
Wow.
Arnaud's research
is starting to suggest
something quite unexpected.
He has discovered
that the huge holes they dig
are quickly taken
over by other creatures
living in the neighborhood,
so they could be
critical to the survival
of the whole Pantanal ecosystem.
The giants dig a new
burrow about every two days
and so provide ready-made hotels
for dozens of other creatures.
And now, as Tracy checks
out to spend the night feeding,
a whole army of guests
are ready to check in.
The team has now recorded
77 different species
visiting Hotel Armadillo.
Small rodents are almost
always the first to turn up.
♪♪
It's not only the quality
of the accommodation
that attracts the lodgers.
The food is good, too,
for the newly-excavated earth
is rich with insects and roots.
Lowland tapirs are too big to
get into an armadillo burrow,
but that is not a problem
for small anteaters
called tamanduas.
They visit the vacant burrows
more frequently
than any other animal.
Tamanduas spend most
of their time up in the trees,
but they use giant armadillo
burrows as nurseries...
Safe, cool places where
they can leave a baby.
For them, a family
room in Hotel Armadillo
is perfect accommodation.
♪♪
The Giant Armadillo
Project is supported
by more than 40 zoos
and aquariums worldwide,
but it has its base at the
Baia das Pedras Ranch
in the heart of the Pantanal.
Here, Arnaud's team works out
how best to track the armadillos
and log the great
range of other animals
that make use of
the hotels they create.
The project currently
has four individual animals
under surveillance.
Each has been fitted
with a tiny transmitter
that allows Arnaud and his
team to find and then track them.
An individual can
have a home range
of over six square miles.
And in a single year,
it may excavate more
than 150 burrows.
Sometimes, old burrows
can produce a surprise.
Did you hear that?
There's an animal inside.
It's a six-banded armadillo
using the giant
armadillo burrow.
That's why we call armadillos
ecosystem engineers.
So when we say giant armadillos
provide homes for
other species, this is it.
Look. Here he is.
But it's giant armadillos
the team are searching for,
and soon, they pick up a signal
from a female they've
named Isabelle.
Isabelle is really an
armadillo that introduced us
to the giant armadillo world.
Things that we now
sometimes take for granted,
things that we know
about giant armadillos,
we learned from Isabelle.
♪♪
Isabelle's offspring, Alex,
became the first
baby giant armadillo
ever studied scientifically.
The team followed his
story for almost two years.
Through Alex, we learned a lot
about giant armadillo
parental care,
so lots of discoveries
were made.
We had no idea
that giant armadillos
and the females were
such dedicated mothers.
But then,
when Alex was still
less than 2 years old,
he was killed by a hungry puma.
So we all felt
devastated by Alex's loss.
The whole team
was very, very sad.
And on a scientific
point of view,
for the project, it
was a huge loss
because there was lots of
data we still wanted to collect.
There was still lots
of questions we had.
♪♪
The team is desperately hoping
that Isabelle will
produce another baby
so that they can
continue their research.
But the battery of Isabelle's
transmitter is running low,
so the time they have
to study her at close hand
is running out.
She's been tracked
to a fresh burrow.
Once she emerges after dark,
she'll be held in a mesh tube
While an alarm signal
alerts the waiting team.
♪♪
A t giant armadillo
Tracy's old burrow,
it's an hour before dawn.
Deep in the basement suite,
the tamanduas
are still in residence.
♪♪
Upstairs in the lobby, a
visitor is passing through.
It's a Brazilian porcupine...
A guest never recorded before
and one that brings the
list of different species to 78.
Another indication
of the Pantanal's
amazing biodiversity.
As dawn breaks,
the female tamandua
heads out to feed.
Ants and termites make up
more than 90% of their diet.
And an adult needs to consume
thousands of them every day.
But while the mother
feeds, the baby is vulnerable.
A pair of tayras have picked
up the scent of the youngster.
Baby tamanduas
are sometimes killed
by these three-feet-long
relatives of the weasel.
But these tayras have
come to Hotel Armadillo
for a different reason.
The open ground
and the soft earth
makes this an
ideal spot for mating.
The tayras move on, and
mother tamandua returns.
But the infant seems
to have been alarmed
by the scent of the predators...
and it's behaving aggressively.
Not the warmest of
"Welcome homes."
But the powerful
defensive display
has shown that the youngster
is able to fend for itself
and is now ready to leave
the safety of Hotel Armadillo.
The alarm is sounding.
Isabelle is in the trap.
Once dawn breaks, she's
transferred to a large box
and taken to a clearing.
♪♪
The Giant Armadillo
Project employs two vets
who have developed
specialized knowledge
of this rare creature.
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.
Perfect.
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
to rip open termite mounds
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 20 minutes.
Every single part
of a giant armadillo
is fascinating for Arnaud.
I'm collecting hair
off a giant armadillo.
They have tiny, little
hairs between the scales.
Yet still, so little is known
about these remarkable creatures
that every piece
of data is precious.
As Alex's mother,
Isabelle helped Arnaud
discover a great deal
about her secret world.
I know you're not
supposed to have favorites,
but we learned so much with her
and spent so much time with her.
She holds a really
special place in my heart.
As the final samples
are collected,
Isabelle starts to recover.
The armadillos
are always released
into the same burrows
where they were caught.
Because this is an animal
we've been monitoring
already for a while,
the transmitter is
gonna stop working soon.
She's losing her batteries.
So we're a little bit sad
and a little bit
emotional because I think
this is probably the last
time we see her physically
or get a chance to
put our hands on her.
So it's kind of like saying
goodbye to her now.
She's still a little unsteady
from the anesthetic.
But she'll have plenty
of time to sleep it off
once she's back underground.
Beautiful.
The team may never see
Isabelle face to face again.
♪♪
But with luck,
the new camera
traps will enable them
to monitor her
progress in detail.
One day, she may even
be seen with a new baby,
and then the work they
started with Alex can continue.
But that remains a
dream for the team...
One that sometimes
seems almost impossible.
♪♪
The Pantanal may
be rich with wildlife,
but this place is
also home to people.
The traditional way
of cattle ranching here,
however, gives wildlife
plenty of room to thrive.
Throughout the seasons,
cowboys move the
herds around the Pantanal
from pasture to pasture.
It's a system that has been
used here for over 250 years.
♪♪
The edges of the pastures
are dotted with
the termite mounds
that are crucial food stores
for the giant armadillos.
♪♪
Arnaud is also rigging
these with cameras.
♪♪
The team is hoping
the footage will
confirm their suspicion
that the armadillos
are providing something
more than accommodation
in their hotels.
Could it be that they're also
in the restaurant business?
It's 11:00 a.m.
The hottest part of
the day is approaching.
Soon, temperatures will soar
to more than 100 degrees.
But deep underground
in the basement
of Hotel Armadillo,
the baby tamandua is enjoying
a comfortable 75 degrees.
Having been alone now
for more than 12 hours,
it's very hungry.
It's not the only animal
that needs a meal.
♪♪
On the pasture near the burrow,
a family party of coatis
are looking for food.
These close relatives
of the raccoon
are also occasional
visitors to Hotel Armadillo.
♪♪
As the sun reaches
its highest point,
they head towards the
burrow and the shady forest.
They're followed closely
by a group of peccaries.
Peccaries often follow
coatis to collect the fruit
that the coatis
knock from the trees.
But today, the choicest
morsels available
are the exposed roots and
shoots around the burrow entrance.
A 65-pound peccary
is capable of causing a
lot of damage to the hotel.
♪♪
A collapsed roof would be
a disaster for any resident.
♪♪
Once they've gone,
the baby tamandua
makes its move.
It's now out on its own.
Hotel Armadillo has vacancies.
Back at the termite
mound, Arnaud is eager
to check the camera
trap for visitors.
Right on cue, at half past 7:00,
it's a big male giant armadillo.
That's crazy.
The strength of these
animals is absolutely insane.
Termite mounds are
almost as hard as cement,
and the giant armadillo
is one of the few animals
able to tear into
them like this.
But once it has
collected enough termites
with its long, sticky tongue,
it will move on.
Their powerful claws open
up big holes in the mound,
which means other animals
can benefit from the efforts
of the ecosystem's chief digger.
And here, half an hour after,
a giant anteater comes.
This is fantastic. It's perfect.
It just illustrates, you know,
how both these two
giants of the Pantanal
feed on the same resources.
♪♪
The relationship
between giant anteaters
and giant armadillos
has become increasingly
interesting to the team.
Both animals exploit
the same food sources.
So how do these
two giants co-exist?
The team is planning to
catch and radio-tag an anteater
so that its movements
can be plotted
alongside that of
the tagged armadillos.
♪♪
But first, you need
to catch your animal,
and that's best done at dusk.
It's getting a little too dark,
so we probably have maybe
five more minutes of light
where we can actually
see what we're doing.
And after that, we
have to call it a day.
The light has almost gone,
but vet Danilo suddenly spots
an anteater in the shadows.
One Giant anteater
successfully in the bag.
That was quite a run.
They have just one hour
in which to fit the anteater
with the special collar.
Once on, it will give the team a
GPS reading every 20 minutes.
Okay.
The data will then
reveal exactly how
this other giant fits into
the armadillo's world.
♪♪
Perhaps this season,
giant anteaters will appear
for the first time at
a Hotel Armadillo.
♪♪
Just three miles away,
there's a freshly dug burrow.
Beneath the surface,
giant armadillo
Tracy is stirring.
Soon, she'll head off to feed,
leaving behind another
vacant accommodation.
♪♪
A single giant armadillo
creating 15 new
hotels every month
must have a major effect
on the housing
market in the Pantanal
and benefit hundreds
of other animals.
Tracy will be vacating a
pristine, luxury establishment
with only one previous owner.
But after the damage
done by the peccaries,
her older burrow
now has something
of a budget-hotel atmosphere.
But that hasn't reduced
its popularity with visitors.
♪♪
Over the last three days,
the guestbook has
recorded agouti...
lowland tapir...
brocket deer...
bare-faced curassow...
and the giant's
pint-sized cousin,
the six-banded armadillo.
♪♪
It's now also an
important hiding place
for lizards and snakes.
And they, in turn, attract
a specialized hunter.
Red-legged
seriemas eat reptiles.
And now, Hotel Armadillo
has transformed
into Tracy's Diner.
♪♪
The total number
of different species
recorded at burrows
now stands at 79.
Whether you're a
crab-eating fox or an ocelot,
Hotel Armadillo has
something for everyone.
With so many creatures
relying on the giant armadillo,
it's not surprising that Arnaud
and his team consider the animal
to be an ambassador
for biodiversity.
♪♪
But astonishingly,
many of the local people
don't even realize
the animals exist.
So getting the message
out there in the community
is a critical part of the
Giant Armadillo Project.
How can you care about a species
you don't even know you have?
My kids at school have
projects on arctic mammals,
on the African savanna.
Somehow, we forget to celebrate
the amazing animals and
plants in our own backyard.
We're worried about
what is going to be left
for our children.
And most importantly,
will they care?
That's what's really scary.
We need to show
them the incredible role
this species plays
in the ecosystem.
I love seeing the faces of kids
when they see their first
picture of a giant armadillo.
We need these kids to grow up
and care for
biodiversity, for nature.
And the giant armadillo's future
ultimately depends
on them caring.
♪♪
There's intriguing
news from the field.
While Arnaud was
visiting the school,
project biologist Gabriel has
made a remarkable discovery.
A freshly dug armadillo burrow
with the entrance
firmly sealed up.
It was close to the spot
where the team
released Isabelle,
the female who
lost her baby, Alex.
Hotel Armadillo would
only close like this
for one sort of guest...
A baby giant armadillo.
Gabriel was able
to set up cameras,
but frustratingly, he
had to leave the area
before he could
check for images.
Seeing Isabelle
with another baby
is very important
to the project.
I want to pick up where
we left off with Alex.
There are so many
questions we still have.
Arnaud and the team are back
in their Pantanal
headquarters within 24 hours.
We just arrived last night.
And we're gonna go
straight to Isabelle's territory.
It's almost too good to
be true, It's hard to believe,
so I want to see it
with my own eyes.
♪♪
The burrow is quickly located
and the recording played back.
It is definitely Isabelle.
But where's the baby?
Okay, that night at 6:00 p.m.,
she leaves on the 31st.
And nothing has
come into the burrow.
Nothing has happened.
2nd of September...
This is where it
should happen now.
She opens the burrow.
We could not see
any image of a baby.
We both checked
together, Danilo and I.
We looked at the
camera several times.
The images show nothing.
There was no
baby giant armadillo.
Even more frustratingly,
she's moved to a new burrow.
And with her transmitter
now completely dead,
it's not possible to
follow her by radio.
I think
one of the biggest
challenges to this project
is the species itself.
Giant armadillos occur
at such low densities
and are so hard to find.
The secret, I think,
is persistence...
Never giving up...
And being in this
for the long run.
It may be a lean period
for Arnaud and the team,
but back at Hotel Armadillo,
business is booming
by day and night.
Since the team first
located Tracy in May,
she's excavated more
than 50 new burrows.
♪♪
Recent visitors caught on
camera include crab-eating fox...
ocelot...
and exactly what the
team was hoping for...
A Giant anteater.
That brings the guest
list up to 80 species.
♪♪
Baby Giant anteaters are
now appearing in the Pantanal,
clinging tightly to
their mothers' backs.
They're relatively easy to see,
making the search for
the baby giant armadillo
even more frustrating.
♪♪
The team has
traveled almost 60 miles
in the last few days.
But they didn't find a
tell-tale closed burrow.
And even more worryingly,
part of Isabelle's
territory is in flames.
Fire is a natural part
of life in the Pantanal.
It's used by the ranchers
to encourage new growth
when the rains arrive.
But with the growing
intensity of ranching,
the frequency of
fires has increased.
♪♪
And they may now
burn out of control,
destroying giant
armadillo habitat,
and therefore undermining
the part the species plays
in maintaining the wonderful
diversity of this place.
At a local level
and sometimes
international level,
it really feels
like biodiversity
does not stand a chance.
And we see this with our
own eyes all around us.
The changes, impacts,
and cascading
effects of our actions
are becoming bigger and bigger.
And seeing these vast
expanses of cash crops,
where you cannot even
hear a single bird sing...
when you see the
number of animals
killed on our roads,
you sometimes feel like a fool
for thinking you're
gonna make a difference.
You feel powerless.
It feels impossible.
♪♪
I think what keeps us going
is that we love what we do.
I love the life I lead.
I love what I do.
Sheer persistence has led Arnaud
to a burrow deep in the forest.
♪♪
This is it. This is it.
This is what we're looking for.
The burrow entrance
is firmly earthed up.
It must be Isabelle.
This is definitely the
burrow with the baby.
What's typical of it is this
sand that's on top of the burrow
and that's because
she closes the burrow...
Something she never does
unless she's protecting her baby.
So she left to go forage, and
she leaves the baby in here.
Now it should be a simple case
of setting up the remote
cameras around the sealed burrow
to capture pictures
of Isabelle's return.
But they'll have
to wait until dawn
to see the results.
Yeah, so we're
very curious to see.
We just saw footprints of
Isabelle going to the burrow,
so we believe that she's inside.
And let's just make sure that
she hasn't taken the baby out.
So we're gonna go check it out.
Here. She's coming out.
She carefully builds a ramp.
If there was a baby, this is
when it would happen here.
No, no, I don't have the baby.
There's the baby.
I have the baby.
- Do you?
- Yeah.
♪♪
Oh, this is amazing.
♪♪
Wow.
♪♪
♪♪
Yeah, she's leaving.
She's taking the baby out.
She took him out right here.
There are their tracks.
♪♪
The team's discovery of
Isabelle's baby confirms
that giant armadillos only
produce a single infant
once every three years.
So each new birth is even more
precious than anyone realized...
Not just for Giant armadillos,
but for the whole ecosystem.
♪♪
The more Arnaud
and his team discover
about this
extraordinary creature,
the better they will
be able to protect it,
and the more homes there
will be for all the other creatures
that come to stay in the
accommodations they create.
And the team's
commitment to this cause
remains unwavering.
The battle to save
the giant armadillo
is the battle to
save biodiversity.
It's all the same.
It's all together.
We have a pact
with giant armadillos,
and we are in this
for the long run.
And I really feel that we
can make a difference.
I don't think that you could
ask for much more than that.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪
♪♪
In the heart of Brazil
lives an animal so elusive
that until recently,
nothing was known
of its life in the wild.
The giant armadillo.
But now its life has
been caught on camera...
Nobody gets to see this.
♪♪
There's the baby.
And unique, intimate
behavior revealed.
Even their burrows have
become an attraction of their own.
This is it. This is it. This
is what we're looking for.
They're in high demand
as exclusive hotels,
where peculiar
guests check in and out
at all hours of
the day and night.
♪♪
The giant armadillo,
always digging,
is busy making room
for a forgotten world
all across Brazil's Pantanal.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Brazil's Pantanal is a
place unlike any other.
Covering more than
80,000 square miles,
this is the largest tropical
wetland in the world.
Unlike the lands
around the Amazon,
which are covered
by high forest,
the Pantanal consists
of vast expanses
of flooded grassland,
with only here and there
a patch of dry savanna
or a stretch of trees.
Prone to intense
drought and severe floods,
this is a landscape of extremes.
A huge diversity of
species lives here...
including one of
the most secretive...
The giant armadillo.
Solitary, nocturnal,
and extremely rare,
it digs huge underground
burrows up to 20 feet deep
and spends three-quarters
of its life in them underground.
Until recently, we
knew virtually nothing
of their lives in the wild.
But Arnaud Desbiez,
the founder of the
Giant Armadillo Project,
has changed that.
When I started the
Giant Armadillo Project,
I had already been working
and living in the Pantanal
for eight years.
But during those eight years,
I had never seen
a giant armadillo.
It was a species I
really wanted to see.
Even finding signs
of giant armadillos
is extremely difficult.
But gradually, Arnaud
started to build up
a picture of their hidden world.
We couldn't leave
any stone unturned.
And little by little, yes, we
did start finding evidence.
And it was so exciting
when we got our first picture.
That was an indescribable
moment because there it was.
The species we were
working so hard to find...
We couldn't believe it.
It's so hard to believe
that this magnificent giant
is living right beside us.
It's right there.
But you don't see it.
It's May...
The start of Arnaud's
research year.
But this season's
expedition could be different.
He has used camera traps before,
but they have only
given him brief glimpses
of the animal in which
he is so interested.
Now Arnaud has
newly developed gear
that could give him
more continuous pictures
from above and below ground.
The team has found
the burrow of a female
that they've named Tracy,
in honor of the first giant
armadillo researcher,
Tracy Carter.
♪♪
The new camera rig
can record pictures
by day and by night.
It is switched on by
the tiniest movements,
and the team are hoping
that the animals themselves
will trigger recordings
that will reveal
new things about them.
There are good reasons
why giant armadillos
are so rarely seen.
Their senses of smell
and hearing are acute,
and they are exceptionally
wary of people and cameras.
The locals still
consider these animals
to be supernatural beings...
Monsters that come up
from deep within the earth.
The cameras are rigged,
but will Tracy appear
and switch them on?
♪♪
Okay, okay. Tracy is coming out.
Ah, this is beautiful.
Armadillos are one of the
most ancient of living mammals
and first appeared some
50 million years ago.
The giant species is still found
in many parts of South America,
but there are so few of them
that images like
these are truly rare.
It's a major achievement
for Arnaud and his team.
So, Tracy is investigating
her surroundings.
Scent is the key sense
for giant armadillos.
So she's sniffing
the air around her.
The burrow is her safety net,
so if anything goes wrong,
if she smells
anything out of place,
if she has any concern,
she can just run back.
Just to be able to
see this right now
is just amazing.
Wow.
Arnaud's research
is starting to suggest
something quite unexpected.
He has discovered
that the huge holes they dig
are quickly taken
over by other creatures
living in the neighborhood,
so they could be
critical to the survival
of the whole Pantanal ecosystem.
The giants dig a new
burrow about every two days
and so provide ready-made hotels
for dozens of other creatures.
And now, as Tracy checks
out to spend the night feeding,
a whole army of guests
are ready to check in.
The team has now recorded
77 different species
visiting Hotel Armadillo.
Small rodents are almost
always the first to turn up.
♪♪
It's not only the quality
of the accommodation
that attracts the lodgers.
The food is good, too,
for the newly-excavated earth
is rich with insects and roots.
Lowland tapirs are too big to
get into an armadillo burrow,
but that is not a problem
for small anteaters
called tamanduas.
They visit the vacant burrows
more frequently
than any other animal.
Tamanduas spend most
of their time up in the trees,
but they use giant armadillo
burrows as nurseries...
Safe, cool places where
they can leave a baby.
For them, a family
room in Hotel Armadillo
is perfect accommodation.
♪♪
The Giant Armadillo
Project is supported
by more than 40 zoos
and aquariums worldwide,
but it has its base at the
Baia das Pedras Ranch
in the heart of the Pantanal.
Here, Arnaud's team works out
how best to track the armadillos
and log the great
range of other animals
that make use of
the hotels they create.
The project currently
has four individual animals
under surveillance.
Each has been fitted
with a tiny transmitter
that allows Arnaud and his
team to find and then track them.
An individual can
have a home range
of over six square miles.
And in a single year,
it may excavate more
than 150 burrows.
Sometimes, old burrows
can produce a surprise.
Did you hear that?
There's an animal inside.
It's a six-banded armadillo
using the giant
armadillo burrow.
That's why we call armadillos
ecosystem engineers.
So when we say giant armadillos
provide homes for
other species, this is it.
Look. Here he is.
But it's giant armadillos
the team are searching for,
and soon, they pick up a signal
from a female they've
named Isabelle.
Isabelle is really an
armadillo that introduced us
to the giant armadillo world.
Things that we now
sometimes take for granted,
things that we know
about giant armadillos,
we learned from Isabelle.
♪♪
Isabelle's offspring, Alex,
became the first
baby giant armadillo
ever studied scientifically.
The team followed his
story for almost two years.
Through Alex, we learned a lot
about giant armadillo
parental care,
so lots of discoveries
were made.
We had no idea
that giant armadillos
and the females were
such dedicated mothers.
But then,
when Alex was still
less than 2 years old,
he was killed by a hungry puma.
So we all felt
devastated by Alex's loss.
The whole team
was very, very sad.
And on a scientific
point of view,
for the project, it
was a huge loss
because there was lots of
data we still wanted to collect.
There was still lots
of questions we had.
♪♪
The team is desperately hoping
that Isabelle will
produce another baby
so that they can
continue their research.
But the battery of Isabelle's
transmitter is running low,
so the time they have
to study her at close hand
is running out.
She's been tracked
to a fresh burrow.
Once she emerges after dark,
she'll be held in a mesh tube
While an alarm signal
alerts the waiting team.
♪♪
A t giant armadillo
Tracy's old burrow,
it's an hour before dawn.
Deep in the basement suite,
the tamanduas
are still in residence.
♪♪
Upstairs in the lobby, a
visitor is passing through.
It's a Brazilian porcupine...
A guest never recorded before
and one that brings the
list of different species to 78.
Another indication
of the Pantanal's
amazing biodiversity.
As dawn breaks,
the female tamandua
heads out to feed.
Ants and termites make up
more than 90% of their diet.
And an adult needs to consume
thousands of them every day.
But while the mother
feeds, the baby is vulnerable.
A pair of tayras have picked
up the scent of the youngster.
Baby tamanduas
are sometimes killed
by these three-feet-long
relatives of the weasel.
But these tayras have
come to Hotel Armadillo
for a different reason.
The open ground
and the soft earth
makes this an
ideal spot for mating.
The tayras move on, and
mother tamandua returns.
But the infant seems
to have been alarmed
by the scent of the predators...
and it's behaving aggressively.
Not the warmest of
"Welcome homes."
But the powerful
defensive display
has shown that the youngster
is able to fend for itself
and is now ready to leave
the safety of Hotel Armadillo.
The alarm is sounding.
Isabelle is in the trap.
Once dawn breaks, she's
transferred to a large box
and taken to a clearing.
♪♪
The Giant Armadillo
Project employs two vets
who have developed
specialized knowledge
of this rare creature.
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.
Perfect.
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
to rip open termite mounds
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 20 minutes.
Every single part
of a giant armadillo
is fascinating for Arnaud.
I'm collecting hair
off a giant armadillo.
They have tiny, little
hairs between the scales.
Yet still, so little is known
about these remarkable creatures
that every piece
of data is precious.
As Alex's mother,
Isabelle helped Arnaud
discover a great deal
about her secret world.
I know you're not
supposed to have favorites,
but we learned so much with her
and spent so much time with her.
She holds a really
special place in my heart.
As the final samples
are collected,
Isabelle starts to recover.
The armadillos
are always released
into the same burrows
where they were caught.
Because this is an animal
we've been monitoring
already for a while,
the transmitter is
gonna stop working soon.
She's losing her batteries.
So we're a little bit sad
and a little bit
emotional because I think
this is probably the last
time we see her physically
or get a chance to
put our hands on her.
So it's kind of like saying
goodbye to her now.
She's still a little unsteady
from the anesthetic.
But she'll have plenty
of time to sleep it off
once she's back underground.
Beautiful.
The team may never see
Isabelle face to face again.
♪♪
But with luck,
the new camera
traps will enable them
to monitor her
progress in detail.
One day, she may even
be seen with a new baby,
and then the work they
started with Alex can continue.
But that remains a
dream for the team...
One that sometimes
seems almost impossible.
♪♪
The Pantanal may
be rich with wildlife,
but this place is
also home to people.
The traditional way
of cattle ranching here,
however, gives wildlife
plenty of room to thrive.
Throughout the seasons,
cowboys move the
herds around the Pantanal
from pasture to pasture.
It's a system that has been
used here for over 250 years.
♪♪
The edges of the pastures
are dotted with
the termite mounds
that are crucial food stores
for the giant armadillos.
♪♪
Arnaud is also rigging
these with cameras.
♪♪
The team is hoping
the footage will
confirm their suspicion
that the armadillos
are providing something
more than accommodation
in their hotels.
Could it be that they're also
in the restaurant business?
It's 11:00 a.m.
The hottest part of
the day is approaching.
Soon, temperatures will soar
to more than 100 degrees.
But deep underground
in the basement
of Hotel Armadillo,
the baby tamandua is enjoying
a comfortable 75 degrees.
Having been alone now
for more than 12 hours,
it's very hungry.
It's not the only animal
that needs a meal.
♪♪
On the pasture near the burrow,
a family party of coatis
are looking for food.
These close relatives
of the raccoon
are also occasional
visitors to Hotel Armadillo.
♪♪
As the sun reaches
its highest point,
they head towards the
burrow and the shady forest.
They're followed closely
by a group of peccaries.
Peccaries often follow
coatis to collect the fruit
that the coatis
knock from the trees.
But today, the choicest
morsels available
are the exposed roots and
shoots around the burrow entrance.
A 65-pound peccary
is capable of causing a
lot of damage to the hotel.
♪♪
A collapsed roof would be
a disaster for any resident.
♪♪
Once they've gone,
the baby tamandua
makes its move.
It's now out on its own.
Hotel Armadillo has vacancies.
Back at the termite
mound, Arnaud is eager
to check the camera
trap for visitors.
Right on cue, at half past 7:00,
it's a big male giant armadillo.
That's crazy.
The strength of these
animals is absolutely insane.
Termite mounds are
almost as hard as cement,
and the giant armadillo
is one of the few animals
able to tear into
them like this.
But once it has
collected enough termites
with its long, sticky tongue,
it will move on.
Their powerful claws open
up big holes in the mound,
which means other animals
can benefit from the efforts
of the ecosystem's chief digger.
And here, half an hour after,
a giant anteater comes.
This is fantastic. It's perfect.
It just illustrates, you know,
how both these two
giants of the Pantanal
feed on the same resources.
♪♪
The relationship
between giant anteaters
and giant armadillos
has become increasingly
interesting to the team.
Both animals exploit
the same food sources.
So how do these
two giants co-exist?
The team is planning to
catch and radio-tag an anteater
so that its movements
can be plotted
alongside that of
the tagged armadillos.
♪♪
But first, you need
to catch your animal,
and that's best done at dusk.
It's getting a little too dark,
so we probably have maybe
five more minutes of light
where we can actually
see what we're doing.
And after that, we
have to call it a day.
The light has almost gone,
but vet Danilo suddenly spots
an anteater in the shadows.
One Giant anteater
successfully in the bag.
That was quite a run.
They have just one hour
in which to fit the anteater
with the special collar.
Once on, it will give the team a
GPS reading every 20 minutes.
Okay.
The data will then
reveal exactly how
this other giant fits into
the armadillo's world.
♪♪
Perhaps this season,
giant anteaters will appear
for the first time at
a Hotel Armadillo.
♪♪
Just three miles away,
there's a freshly dug burrow.
Beneath the surface,
giant armadillo
Tracy is stirring.
Soon, she'll head off to feed,
leaving behind another
vacant accommodation.
♪♪
A single giant armadillo
creating 15 new
hotels every month
must have a major effect
on the housing
market in the Pantanal
and benefit hundreds
of other animals.
Tracy will be vacating a
pristine, luxury establishment
with only one previous owner.
But after the damage
done by the peccaries,
her older burrow
now has something
of a budget-hotel atmosphere.
But that hasn't reduced
its popularity with visitors.
♪♪
Over the last three days,
the guestbook has
recorded agouti...
lowland tapir...
brocket deer...
bare-faced curassow...
and the giant's
pint-sized cousin,
the six-banded armadillo.
♪♪
It's now also an
important hiding place
for lizards and snakes.
And they, in turn, attract
a specialized hunter.
Red-legged
seriemas eat reptiles.
And now, Hotel Armadillo
has transformed
into Tracy's Diner.
♪♪
The total number
of different species
recorded at burrows
now stands at 79.
Whether you're a
crab-eating fox or an ocelot,
Hotel Armadillo has
something for everyone.
With so many creatures
relying on the giant armadillo,
it's not surprising that Arnaud
and his team consider the animal
to be an ambassador
for biodiversity.
♪♪
But astonishingly,
many of the local people
don't even realize
the animals exist.
So getting the message
out there in the community
is a critical part of the
Giant Armadillo Project.
How can you care about a species
you don't even know you have?
My kids at school have
projects on arctic mammals,
on the African savanna.
Somehow, we forget to celebrate
the amazing animals and
plants in our own backyard.
We're worried about
what is going to be left
for our children.
And most importantly,
will they care?
That's what's really scary.
We need to show
them the incredible role
this species plays
in the ecosystem.
I love seeing the faces of kids
when they see their first
picture of a giant armadillo.
We need these kids to grow up
and care for
biodiversity, for nature.
And the giant armadillo's future
ultimately depends
on them caring.
♪♪
There's intriguing
news from the field.
While Arnaud was
visiting the school,
project biologist Gabriel has
made a remarkable discovery.
A freshly dug armadillo burrow
with the entrance
firmly sealed up.
It was close to the spot
where the team
released Isabelle,
the female who
lost her baby, Alex.
Hotel Armadillo would
only close like this
for one sort of guest...
A baby giant armadillo.
Gabriel was able
to set up cameras,
but frustratingly, he
had to leave the area
before he could
check for images.
Seeing Isabelle
with another baby
is very important
to the project.
I want to pick up where
we left off with Alex.
There are so many
questions we still have.
Arnaud and the team are back
in their Pantanal
headquarters within 24 hours.
We just arrived last night.
And we're gonna go
straight to Isabelle's territory.
It's almost too good to
be true, It's hard to believe,
so I want to see it
with my own eyes.
♪♪
The burrow is quickly located
and the recording played back.
It is definitely Isabelle.
But where's the baby?
Okay, that night at 6:00 p.m.,
she leaves on the 31st.
And nothing has
come into the burrow.
Nothing has happened.
2nd of September...
This is where it
should happen now.
She opens the burrow.
We could not see
any image of a baby.
We both checked
together, Danilo and I.
We looked at the
camera several times.
The images show nothing.
There was no
baby giant armadillo.
Even more frustratingly,
she's moved to a new burrow.
And with her transmitter
now completely dead,
it's not possible to
follow her by radio.
I think
one of the biggest
challenges to this project
is the species itself.
Giant armadillos occur
at such low densities
and are so hard to find.
The secret, I think,
is persistence...
Never giving up...
And being in this
for the long run.
It may be a lean period
for Arnaud and the team,
but back at Hotel Armadillo,
business is booming
by day and night.
Since the team first
located Tracy in May,
she's excavated more
than 50 new burrows.
♪♪
Recent visitors caught on
camera include crab-eating fox...
ocelot...
and exactly what the
team was hoping for...
A Giant anteater.
That brings the guest
list up to 80 species.
♪♪
Baby Giant anteaters are
now appearing in the Pantanal,
clinging tightly to
their mothers' backs.
They're relatively easy to see,
making the search for
the baby giant armadillo
even more frustrating.
♪♪
The team has
traveled almost 60 miles
in the last few days.
But they didn't find a
tell-tale closed burrow.
And even more worryingly,
part of Isabelle's
territory is in flames.
Fire is a natural part
of life in the Pantanal.
It's used by the ranchers
to encourage new growth
when the rains arrive.
But with the growing
intensity of ranching,
the frequency of
fires has increased.
♪♪
And they may now
burn out of control,
destroying giant
armadillo habitat,
and therefore undermining
the part the species plays
in maintaining the wonderful
diversity of this place.
At a local level
and sometimes
international level,
it really feels
like biodiversity
does not stand a chance.
And we see this with our
own eyes all around us.
The changes, impacts,
and cascading
effects of our actions
are becoming bigger and bigger.
And seeing these vast
expanses of cash crops,
where you cannot even
hear a single bird sing...
when you see the
number of animals
killed on our roads,
you sometimes feel like a fool
for thinking you're
gonna make a difference.
You feel powerless.
It feels impossible.
♪♪
I think what keeps us going
is that we love what we do.
I love the life I lead.
I love what I do.
Sheer persistence has led Arnaud
to a burrow deep in the forest.
♪♪
This is it. This is it.
This is what we're looking for.
The burrow entrance
is firmly earthed up.
It must be Isabelle.
This is definitely the
burrow with the baby.
What's typical of it is this
sand that's on top of the burrow
and that's because
she closes the burrow...
Something she never does
unless she's protecting her baby.
So she left to go forage, and
she leaves the baby in here.
Now it should be a simple case
of setting up the remote
cameras around the sealed burrow
to capture pictures
of Isabelle's return.
But they'll have
to wait until dawn
to see the results.
Yeah, so we're
very curious to see.
We just saw footprints of
Isabelle going to the burrow,
so we believe that she's inside.
And let's just make sure that
she hasn't taken the baby out.
So we're gonna go check it out.
Here. She's coming out.
She carefully builds a ramp.
If there was a baby, this is
when it would happen here.
No, no, I don't have the baby.
There's the baby.
I have the baby.
- Do you?
- Yeah.
♪♪
Oh, this is amazing.
♪♪
Wow.
♪♪
♪♪
Yeah, she's leaving.
She's taking the baby out.
She took him out right here.
There are their tracks.
♪♪
The team's discovery of
Isabelle's baby confirms
that giant armadillos only
produce a single infant
once every three years.
So each new birth is even more
precious than anyone realized...
Not just for Giant armadillos,
but for the whole ecosystem.
♪♪
The more Arnaud
and his team discover
about this
extraordinary creature,
the better they will
be able to protect it,
and the more homes there
will be for all the other creatures
that come to stay in the
accommodations they create.
And the team's
commitment to this cause
remains unwavering.
The battle to save
the giant armadillo
is the battle to
save biodiversity.
It's all the same.
It's all together.
We have a pact
with giant armadillos,
and we are in this
for the long run.
And I really feel that we
can make a difference.
I don't think that you could
ask for much more than that.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,
♪♪