Creature Feature: Pink Fairy Armadillo.

If you burst out laughing at the image of an armadillo with a frilly pink tutu, magic wand with a star on the tip or little glassy bug wings, you are probably in good company. "Pink" and "fairy" are not commonly used in the same sentence as "armadillo..."perhaps with good reason.  

OK, so I can see where they got "pink" from. 

The Pink Fairy Armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) resembles a cross between an American armadillo and a mole with a pastel palette. It is  the smallest armadillo - only 4.5 inches (115 mm) long at maximum. This armadillo is native only to the plains areas of central Argentina. It's also just plain adorable, but your mileage may vary.

The Pink Fairy Armadillo is a nocturnal sand-swimmer. When moving, it agitates the sand so that it can swim through it as if it were water. It spends most of its time swimming underground, munching on ants and ant larvae. It can also eat various other small invertebrates and plants. If a predator approaches, it can vanish underground within seconds.



Although not technically endangered anymore, the Pink Fairy Armadillo is still treated as a species worth preserving. Originally, it was listed as such due to habitat loss; now, nobody is sure how many of these armadillos remain. Fairy Armadillos are still protected on both the national and provincial levels. I do not know how the guy above got one as a pet; they supposedly do not live long in captivity.


Damn if they aren't cute, though.