The Chacoan naked-tailed armadillo (''Cabassous chacoensis'') is a species of South American
armadillo
Armadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, alo ...
.
It is the smallest of the
naked-tailed armadillos, having an average head-body length of , while the other species range from . They also have smaller ears than the other species, and their ears also have a distinctive fleshy expansion on the forward edge that other species lack.
As its name suggests, the Chacoan naked-tailed armadillo is found in the
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gros ...
region of western
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
and north-central
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
[ It may also be found in ]Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, and possibly Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
.[
Little is known of its biology and behaviour, although it is known to be nocturnal, and an active burrower. They feed primarily on ants and ]termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
s. They have been reported to make a grunting call, and to give birth to a single young at a time.[
]
References
Armadillos
Gran Chaco
Mammals of Argentina
Mammals of Uruguay
Myrmecophagous mammals
Near threatened animals
Near threatened biota of South America
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Mammals described in 1980
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