Thanks! Like needs more fluffy kittehs!
If I were a quilter, I’d like to make one like that, but I only do quilt blocks, and then only if there is a pressing need. I had a red, white and blue quilt when I lived in Del Rio, but I got tired of it. And I don’t know why. Musta been a mood thing.
Shannon is wandering around calling us names and demanding more meat. What a grouch!
Today’s special animal friend is the Big Hairy Armadillo, Chaetophractus villosus, which is a real thing, not a rock band. In the late 1980s/early ‘90s, my late father was on a bowling team called The Thundering Herd, and they had t-shirts featuring charging armadillos. Good memories ...
The Big Hairy Armadillo is one of 21 extant species of armadillos, a group of New World placental mammal which are the only members of the order Cingulata. They are most closely related to sloths and anteaters. Big Hairy is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and a few adjacent areas over national borders in South America. “Big” is relative: it can grow more than 13 inches long, with a tail about another 6 inches, making it more than twice the size of the Lesser Hairy Armadillo. Adult weight averages 4.5 to 5 lbs.
Like all armadillos, Big Hairy’s head and back are covered with armored plates. On the back, the plates are separated by flexible bands that allow the animal to bend “forward,” as it were. Its underside is covered with dense hair, and long, coarse hairs project between its armor plates. It is one of the hairiest of hairy armadillos. The author of the Wikipedia article took quite an interest in this armadillo’s penis; read it if you care to.
Big Hairy Armadillos live mainly in low-altitude habitats such as the Argentinian pampas. They use their long, strong claws to excavate burrows in hillsides while hunting for insects and worms. They are active mainly at night but can be seen in daytime if they are still hungry. Their habitation burrows can be deep and complex, with multiple entrances and exits oriented with the prevailing winds in the area. They also dig numerous, smaller “escape burrows” in which they can quickly hide from predators. They can run much faster than you would think.
They mate in late winter or spring, and the female gives birth to one or two young, which she nurses for two to three months. The young reach adulthood in less than a year. Sources did not list a lifespan in the wild, but the oldest known specimen in captivity lived 23 years. Predators include dogs and wild canids and large birds of prey. In some areas, they are hunted for their carapaces, which are used in making a traditional, Andean, stringed instrument called a “charango.” They are also killed as an agricultural pest (the digging!) and by vehicles.
The Big Hairy Armadillo is the most common armadillo species in its range (non-coastal, southern South America) and is considered a species of least concern by conservationists. However, this species benefits from sharing its habitat with the protected range of other species which are threatened or endangered. They are well adapted for a variety of climate conditions and are expanding their range to the south and east.