Yellow armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) can predate on vertebrates as large as a chicken

Vania Cristina Foster; Grasiela Porfirio; Diego Viana; Pedro Sarmento; Erich Fischer

doi:10.1515/mammalia-2016-0002

Article

Yellow armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) can predate on vertebrates as large as a chicken

Vania Cristina Foster , Grasiela Porfirio , Diego Viana , Pedro Sarmento and Erich Fischer

Published/Copyright: May 11, 2016

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From the journal Mammalia Volume 81 Issue 3

Abstract

Food habits of yellow armadillos have been reported to include mainly plant material and invertebrates. Although predation on medium vertebrates is unexpected, yellow armadillos present strategies to subjugate medium vertebrates. Here, we report events of predation upon domestic chickens by yellow armadillos in the Brazilian Pantanal. We installed 20 Tomahawk traps, each baited with one live chicken to capture felines and, throughout 15 days of trapping, we captured two yellow armadillos. Both killed the chickens and ate most of them. These events represent a new uppermost limit of prey size for yellow armadillos.

Keywords: armadillos; Dasypodidae; food habit; Pantanal; predation; xenarthrans

Funding source: Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento do Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul

Funding source: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Award Identifier / Grant number: 23/200.652/2013

Award Identifier / Grant number: 311001/2012-2

Funding statement: Thanks are due to H. Concone for help during fieldwork, to A.M. Abba for sharing his knowledge with us and comments on early drafts of the manuscript, to the San Francisco Hotel Ranch for logistical support, and to the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro for the Tomahawk traps and overall provisions. VCF was supported by a scholarship grant from Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento do Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul (23/200.652/2013) and EF by research grant from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (311001/2012-2).

Acknowledgments:

Thanks are due to H. Concone for help during fieldwork, to A.M. Abba for sharing his knowledge with us and comments on early drafts of the manuscript, to the San Francisco Hotel Ranch for logistical support, and to the Instituto Homem Pantaneiro for the Tomahawk traps and overall provisions. VCF was supported by a scholarship grant from Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento do Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul (23/200.652/2013) and EF by research grant from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (311001/2012-2).

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Received: 2016-1-6

Accepted: 2016-4-6

Published Online: 2016-5-11

Published in Print: 2017-5-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2016-0002

Keywords for this article

armadillos; Dasypodidae; food habit; Pantanal; predation; xenarthrans