Photo: Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres Some species of armadillos are less cryptic (they don’t hide in trees all the time), but others are rare, nocturnal, and harder to find than you’d think, especially in the case of the giant armadillo. Sloths are difficult animals to study in the wild. Researchers call this behavior “hunkering”. While sloths are not protected with keratin armor, they still sometimes curl up on themselves to protect their heads. When they are stressed or threatened, armadillos roll up into an armored ball, hiding their soft parts. Photo: Giant Armadillo ProjectĪ nother behavior sloths and armadillos have in common is their tendency to curl up in response to danger. Giant Armadillo (Priodontes Maximus) in Brazil. The third front claw of the giant armadillo is greatly enlarged and can reach lengths of over 20 cm (7.9 in)! Sloth claws act as their fingers and species such as the giant armadillo have large, scimitar-shaped foreclaws. Claws for digging and climbingĪll xenarthrans have large claws that help them in various ways anteaters use them to dig up ant and thermite nests, armadillos use them to dig burrows, and sloths use them to climb trees and hang onto branches. So if you don’t care for spiders and scorpions, you’ll love armadillos for being one of their natural predators! The giant armadillo can eat up to 200,000 ants in one go, though there is no record of how many spiders they can get rid of. Some prefer ants and termites, and others will eat a large variety of creepy-crawlies, up to and including worms, spiders, and scorpions. Some may eat a few plants and sometimes fruit the majority feed mostly on insects. Two-fingered sloth sleeping in the canopyĪs compared to sloths’ leaf-only diet, armadillos have a much more diverse diet which will vary between species. Lugging around all those boney plates must be pretty exhausting! Giant armadillos are only active on average 5-6 hours a night! In spite of the sloths’ reputation, armadillos actually sleep far more! While sloths clock in about nine hours per day, armadillos actually sleep about 16 hours per day, and maybe more in captivity. Photo: Giant Armadillo Project Do sloths sleep more than armadillos? Giant Armadillo ( Priodontes Maximus) in Brazil. Other than raising her young (which in some cases consist of four identical quadruplets, and in others can range from 1 to 12 pups), the armadillo lives in solitary splendor. Photo: Suzi Eszterhas Armadillos, like sloths, prefer their own company. Hairy Armadillo ( Chaetophractus villosus) entering its burrow, Península Valdés, Patagonia Argentina. Sloths live in the canopy of trees, most armadillos live on the ground, and some species live underground, just like their ancestors! Sloth in a tropical rainforest / Photo: Suzi EszterhasĪrmadillos are particularly prevalent in Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil for those wishing to see them in the wild. Read More: Anteaters, the sloth’s closest relative!Īlthough sloths and armadillos originated in South America, once South America met North America via the isthmus of Panama, sloths and armadillos used the newly formed land bridge to migrate north, though the armadillos went much further, and can be even found as far north as parts of the United States.Sloths are related to armadillos, but not as close as they are to anteaters! Sloths, unsurprisingly, are part of the “ones with fur” whereas armadillos and their extinct relatives the glyptodonts and pampatheres are “the ones with armor”. The cingulate (plural for cingulata, which is the name of the order) are so-called because they are “the ones with armor” as opposed to the pilosa, which are the “ones with fur”. Like all Xenarthrans, armadillos hail from South America, where they diverged from our furry friends the anteaters and sloths about 60 million years ago-give or take a few million. In today’s edition of “Sloths vs” we bring you the final, the long-awaited, the last but never least of the Xenarthran Superorder, the armadillo!

Armadillo enemies