Cabassous tatouay

10.

Greater Naked-tailed Armadillo

Cabassous tatouay

French: Tatou a queue nue / German: Grol3es Nacktschwanzgurteltier / Spanish: Armadillo de cola desnuda mayor

Taxonomy. Loricatus tatouay Desmarest, 1804,

type locality not given. Identified by A. Cabrera in 1958 as “27 de lat. sur. [= 27° S],” Paraguay. This species is monotypic.

Distribution. NE to S Brazil, E Paraguay, extreme NE Argentina (Misiones and N Corrientes provinces), and C & E Uruguay (from Tacuarembo and Cerro Largo S to Lavalleja and N Maldonado departments). Records from Buenos Aires Province in Argentina are erroneous.

Descriptive notes. Head—body 360-490 mm, tail 150-200 mm, ear 40-44 mm, hindfoot 79-86 mm; weight 3.4-6.4 kg. The Greater Naked-tailed Armadillo is the largest species of Cabassous. Carapace is reddish brown to blackish and devoid of hair; it has 12-13 movable transverse bands. Tail is naked, rather long and slender, and armored only with thin, widely spaced plates. Ears are long, funnelshaped, and well-separated from each other, extending well above top of head. Chromosomal complement is 2n = 50, FN = 68.

Habitat. Tropical lowland, submontane forest, open areas (cerrado and grasslands with bushes and trees), agricultural areas, and perhaps secondary forest.

Food and Feeding. Greater Naked-tailed Armadillos are insectivorous, eating primarily ants and termites. They catch their prey by digging into mounds from the surface or through their underground tunnels.

Breeding. Greater Naked-tailed Armadillos presumably give birth to single young.

Activity patterns. Greater Naked-tailed Armadillos are nocturnal.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. The Greater Naked-tailed Armadillo is solitary, highly fossorial, and rarely observed.

Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix III (Uruguay). Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. The Greater Naked-tailed Armadillo has a relatively wide distribution, occurs in several protected areas, and tolerates some habitat modification. It is mainly threatened by habitat loss and hunting for meat.

Bibliography. Cabrera (1958), Coitino et al. (2013), Feijé & Langguth (2013), Hayssen (2014c), Redford & Eisenberg (1992), Smith et al. (2011), Ubaid et al. (2010), Wetzel (1980, 1985b), Wetzel et al. (2008).