![]() ![]() Using its brawny foreclaws, the armadillo burrows through the sandy soil hunting for worms and insects. It serves instead as an air conditioning system: In hot weather, the armadillo flushes its shell with blood, radiating heat and cooling down its core body temperature. Underground, in the absence of predators, most of the pink fairy’s shell softened, losing its defensive function. “Burrowing habits tend to appear when habitats become open, going from tree cover to grasslands or deserts, or when they get really hot,” said the University of Oregon’s Samantha Hopkins, who studies small mammal evolution, in an email. As its habitat became less hospitable, the pink fairy’s ancestor retreated from the surface, evolving into a burrowing, or fossorial, animal. That’s when global climate patterns shifted, transforming the Andean foothills from grasslands into semi-arid deserts. ![]() The pink fairy remains as mysterious as its name suggests because of its subterranean lifestyle, the result of adaptation to a changing environment millions of years ago. For centuries the armadillo has evaded the most determined scientists even Charles Darwin failed to collect a specimen during his visit to Argentina. ![]() Studying the animal in its natural habitat, however, has eluded her-and everyone else. An undated illustration of pink fairy armadillos by Friedrich Specht, which was later published in the German reference book Brehms Tierleben ( Brehm’s Lives of Animals). She even hosted a live pink fairy armadillo-which turned out to be a real diva-in her living room in the name of science. Today, she leads an international team that monitors global populations of anteaters, sloths, and armadillos but, thanks to her pink fairy armadillo obsession, she has also become the leading expert on the diminutive and enigmatic animal. Originally from Switzerland, Superina began studying armadillos in western Argentina 25 years ago. “At that moment I knew I wanted to learn everything I could about it. Instant fascination was certainly Superina’s reaction the first time she saw one of the tiny mammals. Watts, whose podcasts and tv shows champion the less charismatic members of the animal world, doesn’t count the pink fairy armadillo as one of his unsung uglies-between its cotton candy colors and curious name, he says, “people tend to be fascinated when they hear of them.” “‘Pink fairy armadillo’ does frankly sound fictitious.” “The first question that hits on Google is, ‘Do pink fairy armadillos exist?’” says evolutionary biologist Simon Watts, author of We Can’t All Be Pandas (Ugly Animal Preservation Society). In fact, some people doubt whether they’re even real. “They are a total enigma… We don’t even know if they are common or rare,” says Superina. And that is about all we know of these wondrous animals. It’s found only in Argentina, in a broad swathe of sunbaked scrubland that stretches from the foothills of the Andes to the coastal province of Buenos Aires. About the size of a hamster-a mere six inches from head to tail and weighing just a quarter of a pound-it’s the smallest of all armadillo species. The animal’s shell, paws, and tail are a vibrant bubblegum pink that contrasts with its silky, milk-white fur and black eyes. Her quarry, the pink fairy armadillo ( Chlamyphorus truncatus), looks like it could have scurried straight out of the illuminated pages of a medieval bestiary. But that’s all.In the arid desert of Argentina’s Mendoza Province, Mariella Superina waits patiently for a fantastic creature to emerge from its lair beneath the sands. And she also had a chance to observe the diamond-shaped tip of its tail. All she has seen is tracks made by digging claws that abruptly end after several meters – most probably where the armadillo has gone underground. Superina leads an international group of experts who are now evaluating the extinction risk for the world’s 21 known armadillo species, along with their close relatives, sloths, and anteaters.Īfter 10 years on the field, Superina has yet to catch sight of a pink fairy armadillo in its natural habitat. As a result, Superina and her team are finding it challenging to even determine if species is endangered or not. It is found only in a dry, sandy region of Argentina and primarily resides underground, making it difficult to spot. Much about the biology of the pink fairy armadillo remains a mystery though. The pink fairy armadillo, the smallest armadillo in the world, can comfortably fit in researcher Mariella Superina’s palm. ![]()
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