Observations on the Diet of the Giant Armadillo (<i>Priodontes maximus Kerr</i>, 1792)

Wallace, Robert B.; Painter, R. Lilian E.

doi:10.5537/020.014.0112

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The observation we report here is consistent with other studies that have documented occasional, opportunistic feeding by giant armadillos on prey such as spiders (Aranea), scorpions (Scorpiones), cockroaches (Blattaria), beetles (Coleoptera), Diplopoda, worms, small snakes, and carrion (Anacleto & Marinho-Filho 2001;, or even leaves of grasses, seeds (Anacleto & Marinho-Filho, 2001), and figs (Wallace & Painter, 2013). Consumption of stingless bees by P. maximus reinforces the importance of Hymenoptera in its diet, but also suggests that the diet may be broader than has been thought.…”

Section: Agradecimientossupporting

confidence: 92%

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2020

Edentata: The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Anteater, Sloth and Ar

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Welcome to Edentata 21! This year's issue features two full articles, two short communications, and two field notes. It includes an interesting review on the xenarthrans of Honduras; a description of the first camera trap records of giant anteaters in Baritú National Park, Argentina; and a report on the occurrence of ticks on free-ranging armadillos in Piauí, Brazil. Coincidentally, there are two contributions about giant armadillos and bees. One of them describes the attack of Priodontes maximus on a nest and its predation of stingless bees, whereas the other explores ways to reduce the conflict between beekeepers and giant armadillos. And don't miss the field note about the SlothBot, a cute environmental monitoring robot! Hopefully, the SlothBot will collect data for field ecologists in the rainforest canopy in the near future.The News section includes, among others, exciting announcements about the partnership our Specialist Group has entered into with Nurtured by Nature, and the possibility to support our Specialist Group via Pay-Pal. It also showcases some astonishing statistics from the First International Congress on Xenarthra Conservation, which was held online from November 30 to December 3 and was attended by over 500 participants! We hope many of you participated in this amazing congress and enjoyed the interesting talks and minicourses. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Instituto Tamanduá for having organized this wonderful event. This was the first, but certainly not the last, International Congress on Xenarthra Conservation.At the end of this edition, you will find updated Instructions to Authors in English, Spanish and Portuguese. We hope that these detailed instructions will help you prepare your manuscripts for submission to Edentata. We are looking forward to receiving your manuscripts! Last, but not least, we would like to thank Benison Pang for his generous donation, which has allowed us to prepare this year's edition of Edentata, and Kansas City Zoo for their generous donation to the Pygmy Sloth Conservation Program. We are also grateful to Nurtured by Nature for their continuing support.

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Section: Agradecimientossupporting

confidence: 92%

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2020

Edentata: The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Anteater, Sloth and Ar

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“…The observation we report here is consistent with other studies that have documented occasional, opportunistic feeding by giant armadillos on prey such as spiders (Aranea), scorpions (Scorpiones), cockroaches (Blattaria), beetles (Coleoptera), Diplopoda, worms, small snakes, and carrion (Anacleto & Marinho-Filho 2001;Carter et al, 2016), or even leaves of grasses, seeds (Anacleto & Marinho-Filho, 2001), and figs (Wallace & Painter, 2013). Consumption of stingless bees by P. maximus reinforces the importance of Hymenoptera in its diet, but also suggests that the diet may be broader than has been thought.…”

supporting

confidence: 92%

Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus Kerr, 1792; Cingulata: Chlamyphoridae) attacks nest of stingless bee Trigona amalthea (Olivier, 1789) (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Melo¹,

Nogueira²

2020

Edentata: The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Anteater, Sloth and Ar

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The giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) has a wide distribution in South America and is naturally rare and difficult to observe, which contributes to the little existing knowledge about its biology and natural history, especially in the Amazon. We report, for the first time, an attack on a nest and the predation of stingless bees Trigona amalthea by P. maximus, contributing to the knowledge of their diet in the wild.

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“…Nine-banded armadillos have been reported eating eggs of Caiman crocodilus yacare in the Pantanal towards the end of the incubation period (Campos and Mourão 2015). However, the diet of giant armadillos has been described as consisting almost exclusively of insects, mainly ants and termites, though some fruit has been reported (Anacleto and Marinho-Filho 2001;Wallace and Painter 2013). To our knowledge this is the first report of the species eating eggs, in this case Schneider's dwarf caiman eggs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Predation on eggs of Schneider’s dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider, 1807), by armadillos and other predators

Campos

Muniz

Desbiez

et al. 2016

Journal of Natural History

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Nests of Schneider's dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus, were located in the forests around three streams that drain into the Xingu River, Brazilian Amazonia, in October 2014. Camera traps were installed at the edge of four nests to document predators and female parental care. At two nests, females unsuccessfully defended their nests against one or more giant armadillos, Priodontes maximus, and nine-banded armadillos, Dasypus novemcinctus. Both armadillo species responded to the attack by fleeing and returning on the opposite side of the nest by going around the tree under which the nest was located. Giant armadillos have never before been recorded consuming caiman eggs and their diet has been described as consisting mostly of ants and termites. Another species of armadillo, Cabassous unicinctus, was also registered digging into a nest and probably consuming eggs, though it is generally considered to be primarily insectivorous. A tayra (Eira barbara), lizard (Tupinambis teguixin) and coati (Nasua nasua) were also registered taking eggs from nests during the day, but we obtained no registers of nest defence by caimans during the day. The three nests were attacked after 60 days of incubation, when the eggs were well developed.

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Observations on the Diet of the Giant Armadillo (Priodontes maximus Kerr, 1792)

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

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Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus Kerr, 1792; Cingulata: Chlamyphoridae) attacks nest of stingless bee Trigona amalthea (Olivier, 1789) (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Predation on eggs of Schneider’s dwarf caiman, Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider, 1807), by armadillos and other predators

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