[00:00:00] Speaker A: Facing off with poachers, rescuing injured animals in the middle of the night, and bonding with local people. Sometimes being a wildlife researcher and conservationist affords us with experiences we were not expecting, from the incredible to the potentially life threatening.
Welcome to Rewad Ology, the nature podcast that explores the human side of conservation, travel, and rewilding the planet. I'm your host, Brooke Mitchell, conservation biologist and adventure traveler.
Today's episode is the latest edition of Rewalledology's fun series called Conservation chronicles stories from the field, where I sit down with a former guest to explore the top experiences etched into the memory.
In this conversation, I'm sitting down with Mariela Superida DVMpD, one of the world's leading armadillo researchers. Mariela shared crazy stories with me, from being threatened by poachers in the middle of the desert to raising an entire armadillo colony.
Yes, an entire colony in her backyard. In even an unexpected love story between her dog and a rescued armadillo, Mariela also shares updates about her work since our last conversation, and of course, speaking about the last conversation. After you're done listening to today's fun episode, scroll through the archives to episode 72 to hear her full stories and gain a masterclass on these unique critters.
Before I let you go, please be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you are listening, and follow the show on your favorite social media app. Also, please engage with rewadology online, share this episode or any of your favorite episodes, and tag rewad ology. I always love it when I hear from you all directly.
All right, everyone, please enjoy this rollercoaster conversation with Mariela.
Mariela, oh my gosh. I am so excited to have you back on the show. It has been way too long since we chatted. It's been so long. We had so much fun back then. And today we're even going to have more fun than before because in our minds, I'm picturing us having a beautiful glass of argentinian wine that I've been dreaming about since we met. I'm still determined to go down and see you and go winery hopping, but we're just going to skip forward to that. In our minds, we are doing that right now, and we are telling stories about our time in the field, and I want to hear set the scene for us. What is this first story that you would love to share with all of us?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Well, I think we could start with a story about how I got to work with armadillos. I mean, remember, I'm swiss. There are no armadillos in Switzerland. I was working in Brazil on a farm. And so one day, the farmers cowboys said, oh, let's go tattoo hunting. I said, cool. What is that? They said, oh, you'll see. So we had a blast. We walked around all night long with a hunting dog. The hunting dog would bark around and chase an animal. And we were just too lazy to run after the dog. So, yeah, after about 6 hours of walking around and having fun, we went back to the farm and said, hey, guys, I need to see an armadillo. I need to see a tattoo. I didn't even know what it was. So on the next day, they captured nine band at Armadillo and brought it to me. And it was alive. And I was blown away. I didn't know that this existed. I mean, it looked like a fossil, a living fossil, kind of a mixture between the turtle and mammal. And so I just didn't understand that animal. So that's how I started. I was blown away in that specific moment. Changed my entire life, because that's why I started working with armadillos. That's why I moved to South America. That's why I live in Argentina now. So really, that specific moment when I saw my first armadillo, that was the turning point in my life. So I went back to Switzerland, started studying veterinary medicine, and started looking for information about armadillos and just couldn't find any.
So, yeah, that's how I started with armadillos. And I must say I didn't find a lot of literature at that moment.
I still can't find a lot of literature.
It's kind of frustrating, but it's really. It's so amazing. They're so unusual, these animals, and so different, and they're just not a lot of researchers out there working with armadillos. Although, I mean, there's so much to study.
I started my doctoral thesis in Switzerland, but I said, well, I cannot work just in my office and look at books. So I looked for an externship in Argentina.
And that was really funny because I went to a lab that worked with armadillos, but I didn't learn as much about armadillos in the lab, but one of the keepers was hunter. So during the day, we would be in the lab, and that night, he would take me armadillo hunting.
And that's when I started learning a lot about armadillos. Because locals know where to find them. They know how to read the tracks, et cetera. So he told me everything about how to interpret a burrow, how to know if there was an armadillo inside or not, etcetera. So at some moment, he said, yeah, so have you ever eaten an armadillo? I said, no. I mean, it would be like cannibalism. I cannot eat an armadillo. I mean, they're my study animals. I said, no, but you have to eat them. So, no, I mean, I really didn't want to eat armadillos. But then what happened was that each time I would tell somebody in South America that I liked armadillos, they would ask me if I preferred them roasted or baked in the oven or fried.
It was so frustrating. And I was trying to explain to them that I liked them alive, and they would just look at me and say, why would you like a live armadillo? Have you ever tried one? And when I said no, everybody would start telling me their favorite recipe.
So it would have been much easier to write a cookbook on armadillos than write a doctoral thesis on biology and maintenance of armadillos as I did.
So, yeah, with time, you know, I got so tired of that question that I called my hunter friend. I said, look, I need to try armadillo meat.
So he caught one and prepared it. And I sat there, and I think I sat there for one and a half hours. I just couldn't. I mean, it was like eating another human. It was kind of cannibalism.
But, well, in the end, I tried it.
I didn't think it was something really special, so. But at least, you know, next time somebody asked me if I had tried Armadillo meat, I could say yes, and I didn't lie, so that at least, you know, calm down, people, they wouldn't continue telling me their recipes.
So, yeah, hunting is. Is a very interesting topic to talk about when. When you talk about field experience and anecdotes and stuff like that, because armandilos are hunted throughout South America, and, well, actually, I did my PhD in Louisiana, in New Orleans. And so in New Orleans, they would say that the Texans eat armadillos, but not people in Louisiana. And the Texans would say that people from Louisiana would eat them. So nobody would really admit it. But, I mean, they call them Texas speed bombs. They call them possum on a half shell and stuff like that. You know, they eat them.
So then, you know, when I looked at old literature, that was really funny because there are some descriptions by the first naturalists, you know, 17th, 18th century, that would describe the different armadillo species and so they would kind of make a morphological description, and then they would say, it is not abundant, which is surprising because they're not tasty.
And then the next armadillo would describe the armadillo, and they would say, this has very tasty flesh in an encyclopedia from the, whatever, 18th century.
Yeah, I mean, you have the taxonomic classification of species, and then you can also classify them according to their taste, apparently, which is also a very interesting way of classifying species.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: So, yeah, you know, I work a lot with hunters, actually, because my partner is a ranger. So we always go to field together. And here in Mendoza province, specifically, hunting of any native wildlife is prohibited by law. So the rangers make a lot of road controls.
So during my PhD, for example, where I would collect samples from wild armadillos, we would go to the field together. He would confiscate the armadillos from poachers, and I would then collect samples from them. So I would always have a lot of interaction with the poachers and also tell them why I was interested in studying them, the diseases we were looking at, etcetera. But still, it was always amazing to see how fanatic they are. I mean, they go to a field with hunting dogs. I mean, it's also, you know, cultural thing that they like to go to fields and have fun. So they obviously, in Mendoza, they take their bottles of wine with them and hunt whatever they can find, actually. And we had some really scary encounters with poachers. You know, that Mendoza is a desert region, very arid. So once, for example, we were in the middle of nowhere, and my partner would jump off the truck, and there were three poachers and a dead armadillo hanging there. And he would say, hello, I'm a ranger. I'm going to confiscate this animal. And these guys would come with machetes and.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: And tried to attack us.
So he backed up and would get his gun, because as a ranger, he's allowed. He was allowed to carry a gun. And I was sitting in that truck, and I said, what the hell am I going to do now?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Right?
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So then they actually, they didn't want to attack us because if you're in the middle of the desert, there's no water. So what they wanted was actually to break our tires so that we wouldn't get out of the desert. And we had a VHF radio station in our truck. And just three, four days before, we had installed a repeater station on one of the mountains here. And so I would start calling to see if somebody would hear me. And another ranger heard me and said, look, this is an emergency. You need to come rescue us. And they said, well, I'm very far away. Oh, God.
Usually you have these codes that if it's an emergency, you just play along and you say, yeah, I'm just, you know, a mile away. I'm right there. And I said, no, I'm very far away. I mean, I wanted to kill him.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: It's like, dude, come on, play along. They're right here.
So.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Well, in the end, my partner had to really threaten the guys that he would shoot, not them, but the tires of their vehicle. And that's when they backed up.
That was really interesting. So they were not as scared as being killed, but of being left in. In the desert. That was really very strange, but it was a really scary moment. Obviously, we jumped on the truck and drove to the next police station, which was obviously about 3 hours away. And nothing happened after that, so we never saw these guys again. But these are the moments when you really think that, wow. And that was just because of one armadillo, you know, so people would kill just to eat an armadillo. That. That was so surprising to see, you know, that. That somebody would really go that far just for an armadillo.
So, yeah, that was. That was an interesting moment. Yeah.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Did they see you in the truck? Did they make any sort of advances to you, or they all saw your partner? Oh, they did.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they did. Because they actually wanted to get the keys. Yeah. Out of the vehicle. And I was sitting in the vehicle, so I had to lock the doors or my door at least. I mean, I couldn't lock the other door, otherwise my partner would. Would have anywhere to go.
But, yeah, it was. It was really. It was a critical moment.
I had never expected that.
But, I mean, in other cases, I must say, poachers know that the rangers have the authority to control them. So in most other cases, you know, we would just stop the vehicle, and they would get off the vehicle and allow you to. To check out their vehicle. So it was really. It was, well, twice that we had really problems with, with poachers.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Was your other one a scary.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think my. My partner got the gun out a little bit faster.
I said, oh, no, that's not a good idea to joke, to mess with that guy.
And it was also very funny that several years ago, my dad came to visit from Switzerland, that he was an economist. So, I mean, he had absolutely nothing to do with field work and wildlife although he liked nature.
And so we went for a ride and visited some very beautiful areas, protected areas we have here in Mendoza.
And at that time, my partner and I were actually living in a protected area.
And there was one poacher that would hunt not armadillos, but guanacos, and we would find his tire marks every now and then, but none of the rangers would be able to track that guy down. And just, you know, we were driving around as tourists with my dad and his wife, and we saw the tracks, fresh tracks from that tire, from that vehicle. And we got all excited and said, hey, he just drove by here. So we had to follow him. And we started following the tracks.
And my dad was getting a little bit nervous. He said, well, but isn't that a little bit dangerous? Because we were in the middle of nowhere. And we said, oh, no, you know, we have a gun.
And my dad looked at me and said, what?
Well, that's a reality of doing field work in Argentina.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: So.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: But then, you know, adrenaline kicked in, and my dad also started looking for the tracks and pointing at lights and helping us to find. We never found the guy, unfortunately. But the thing is that it's a volcanic region. So you have a lot of volcanic cones and you can drive around and the guy can be just 2 miles away. But on the other side of that volcanic cone, you don't see him. And actually, that's what happened because a couple of days later, we went to visit a local who lived on a volcano, and he said, oh, you were following the tracks of that poacher the other day. I saw you. You were very close.
So we have missed him by two or 3 miles.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: That was really frustrating. But, yeah, that's the interesting part of going to the field with a ranger.
You get to do things that scientists usually don't do, I guess.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: No experience.
Do you have any stories about the. The pink fairy? Like, how did you. The one that's in your hand, how did that happen?
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
Oh, that, that's interesting. Yeah. I became a little bit obsessed with pink fairy armadillos because mendoza is kind of a hotspot for pink fairy armadillos. So if you go to the National History Museum in London, they have, I think, six pink fairy armadillos. They were all captured in Mendoza between 1870 and 1875 a couple of years ago. So we have a lot of records here, but they're all, you know, occasional encounters with pink fairy armadillos. And even 23 years after having moved to Mendoza, I still haven't seen a live pink fairy armadillo in the wilds. I mean, it's absolutely absurd.
But several years ago, the head of the department of natural renewable Resources, my partner's boss, called us at 02:00 a.m. in the morning. I said, hey, I found a pink fairy armadillo. What should I do? I said, this guy is crazy.
I said, no, but he lived in a very small town about, yeah, more than 100 miles away from the city of Mendoza. And so his dog had barked at something. So he went outside and looked around and found that pink fairy armand. So he rescued it because otherwise his dogs would kill it.
And so we said, well, yeah, put it in a bucket with some sand and we'll get there as soon as we can. So next morning, we would drive out to that little town and with the intention of getting that, rescuing that little animal and releasing it in the desert.
So we got there and the head of the authorities, environmental authorities, said, no, no, you take it home. I said, no way, no.
I mean, pink fairy armadillos survive eight days under human care and they die. I said, I do not want to be responsible for the death of a pink fairy amadillo.
And, you know, the guy was very, very logical, actually, in his thoughts. He said, well, somebody has to start investigating how we can keep these animals alive so that we can save the rescued pink fairy armadillos.
I say, yeah, but still, you know, I wasn't convinced. I said, well, you know, it's your only way to rescue and rehab and release few tripping fairy amidalus.
It's okay. So we took it home and we took some sand with us and we collected wild berries and captured insects in the desert and stuff like that, because, I mean, we had no idea how we were going to keep that animal alive.
So at home, my partner built a terrarium. We filled it with that sand we brought with us.
And, yeah, that pink fairy Armadillo wasn't too convinced about its new enclosure. So it started running around like crazy. And I thought, well, it's going to die of a heart attack, you know. And then we found out, no, that it needed, actually, it needed more compact sand. They couldn't dig, really a burrow because it was too loose.
So we started, you know, modifying the whole terrarium.
And then, yeah, big question, what does a pink fairy armadillo eat? We knew from some descriptions that they eat insects and some fruits.
So, you know, I did so big smorgasbord of fruit, wild fruit and insects and whatever. I could find, and that little creature wouldn't eat anything.
And, yeah, he drove me crazy because, I mean, I was getting worried.
I do a lot of rehab work with other armadillo species, so, you know, I have all my secret recipes and I tried them out, and I think I tried out 32 different ingredients, and that little creature just didn't want to eat anything.
And I just had a hairy armadillo here that I was hand rearing and I was weaning it. So I was so desperate that I would just put that milk with ground cat food and banana on a plate, and we put it into that terrarium.
And the pink fairy a little ate it, though it was totally unreasonable that it would eat that.
But then I had my secret mixture, and I had to really follow that recipe. I couldn't, for example, change the brand of the cat food, otherwise you wouldn't eat it. And if I would prepare the food for, you know, two weeks and I had one entire banana in it, if I would just put half a banana, it wouldn't eat it.
So that little picky eater drove us crazy, but also because it would only emerge after 09:00 p.m.
and you had to leave the food plate outside before 09:00 otherwise it would come outside and freak out and run around its enclosure.
So our life was dominated by a pink fairy armadillo for eight months. Because, you know, we both work in the city and they would say, oh, you could go and have a beer. I would look at our watch and say, no. We had go feed pink fairy armadillo.
So no social life for eight months because of the pink fairy armadillo and that little picky eater. I mean, I wouldn't see it very often. I had infrared cameras with motion detectors and stuff like that. But then we just had an international mammalogy congress here in Mendoza. So several colleagues came over from different countries, and of course, they wanted to see that pink fairy armadillo. And the terrarium was in our living room. So they would sit on our couch and would wait for pink fairy armadillo, and pink fairy armadillo would not emerge.
So they would sit there until 02:00 a.m. or something like that, and pink farmerdale would not emerge.
And when they would give up and go to sleep, I mean, afterwards, we could check the motion cameras, motion detection cameras, and 15 minutes after the people left my living room, pink ferrymandill would emerge and go and have fun and eat and walk around and look at everything.
It was really a very interesting experience.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Did it pass away or did you let it out or just naturally passed away at that age?
[00:25:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it passed away after eight months. And I don't know why, but probably the diet was, probably wasn't totally balanced. I mean, it was just what it ate. And I always try to supplement with larvae or beetles or whatever and they wouldn't eat it. And funny thing is that, you know, I, I thought now I had the secret recipe to feed pink fairy armadillos and then a couple of months later I would get another pink fairy that had been bit by a dog.
So I got it here. We usually we have to drive, you know, 150 miles to pick up pink fairy armadillos and then drive back. And so I had the pink fairy armadillo say, yeah, I have my secret mixture. So I prepare my mixture with banana, with cat food, with everything and it wouldn't eat it.
So next, pink fairy amodillo just wanted to eat ten embryo larvae and then the next one only wanted to eat earthworms and the next one just wanted to eat fruit.
So they're not only picky eaters, but they also have a very specific diet they follow that they prefer. So, yeah, they drive you crazy.
They are very special.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. I mean, I guess they're living up to their name of pink fairy. They're little princesses and needed their way.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, that is amazing. Well, tell us any updates since the last time we sat down?
Have you made any? I guess. Has your work progressed any further the last time we sat down? Yeah, I would love to hear updates.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah, we've been working a lot on our project in Colombia. So we have a research and conservation program for armadillos in the llanos of Colombia.
So, yeah, we've been working a lot there with a lot of success both in doing research. But I mean, it has several aspects. So we do research, we do field research and we do a lot of education and awareness work. So, for example, we published a book on armadillos with lots of very beautiful pictures.
It's in Spanish.
We printed about 800 copies just to distribute among the locals in the llanos to raise awareness so that they can learn a little bit more. And, you know, nowadays people don't read. So we wanted to make it very attractive with lots of infographics and lots of photographs. So it is online. I can send you the link later on. Oh, yes, please share that because it's a very beautiful book with information about armadillos in general about what we've been doing the different components of our research, conservation program about traditions, local culture and things like that. So it's really, it's beautiful because it also, it recognizes a very important part of conservation, and that's the community.
We often, as researchers, we're so focused on doing research and writing papers that we forget about that part. Just today, actually, I had a very interesting Zoom meeting with an anthropology student from Peru who was looking at a traditional dance, which is called the dance of the armadillos.
And we were discussing that. And it was so beautiful to see all the knowledge that locals have about wildlife, about nature. So I really love that part of being in the field of interacting with people because I learn a huge amount of things from them, also knowing, getting to know committed people. So, for example, there's one person in Colombia, it's very funny because I met him through friends and then others recommended me to meet him. And Nelson Barragan is from a farmer family. They have a very large cattle farm in the Llanos. And about 20 years ago, he decided that the culture, the Llanos was being lost, that youth would know about the traditions, about the culture, and he wanted to preserve that. And also he really loved nature and he wanted to preserve the wetlands of the Llanos. So he started an eco hotel without even knowing that there is a concept of eco hotels.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: So it was really sweet because he started receiving tourists in his private reserve.
And it's one of the most famous areas now in Colombia, for example, for bird watching.
And Nelson is such a beautiful person. He talks to you about wildlife, about nature, about the importance of, of safeguarding wildlife. And, you know, that's the moments that you really enjoy being in the field and exchanging ideas and experiences with people because he's been living there all his life. So he knows, you know, about movements of animals, where he's going to find them and when. And so it's really, it's a knowledge. It's a traditional knowledge that we as researchers very often don't even take into account.
But as I talked today, as I discussed today with the anthropology students, we learn from them and they can learn from us. And I think that's the important part, realizing that we have different types of knowledge, but they're both important.
But you need to go to the field and listen to them and have time. And very often when we go to the field, you know, we have our schedule and we need to find whatever, 25 armadillos in three days. So we have to run around and rush, and it's stressful, and you don't find all these moments just to enjoy.
And I think that's.
Yeah, it's a pity, but it's also. It's something that we, as researchers have to, you know, rethink our way of doing research, our way of learning from the animals or about the animals.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. In all of my travels, I, of course, I always take way too many photographs of all of the wildlife I've seen, but I'm always impacted most by the communities and the people I meet, my guide, and all of these crazy, you know, encounters with people in different cultures I've never even heard of or the food, like, tasting food that I didn't even know that was a flavor. Like, I didn't even know that this. That there was a whole spectrum of taste that I hadn't consumed before or, you know, going and have a different style of wine or. What is the local moonshine? Because everywhere has moonshine I've come to find, and I have a tendency of finding nice finds me somewhere.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Well, you know, if you do field work here in Argentina, I mean, the locals drink mate, which is a traditional drink. And it's at least before the pandemic, it was a social drink. So it's something that if you go to the field and you visit the local, you have to share mate with him, otherwise he will not even talk to you.
And, yeah, it's really. I mean, he. They get offended if you don't accept the mate because it's a ritual.
So, you know, you have to get used to that. And sometimes, you know, you're in the middle of the. Of nowhere and, you know, we're in the desert, so the water quality is probably not the best.
And so you don't really want to try that water because you don't know if you'll get sick, but you have to because otherwise that person will be offended. And you cannot offend a local.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: No. All in the name of research and wildlife. Like, my bowels might hate me tomorrow and might be on the toilet, but, man, I will drink this with a smile.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Yeah, but really, I mean, it's. You have to get used to it. And it's funny, you know, when you have foreigners coming to Argentina and you try to explain that, or even students who have never gone to the field, you know, you first actually have to tell them cultural things, and then you go to the part about the animals, you know, because it's key to talk correctly, adequately, respect. Show them respect. For example, and it's something that maybe if you're seated well or you're not used to that because you don't, you don't know how they treat each other, how they talk to each other. I mean, also, time is something so different. I mean, you rush in the city and then you go to the field and, yeah, you have to sit down and have mate for an hour because otherwise you won't get anywhere. And, you know, you start getting nervous. You think, well, I have to go and work. But, you know, you can't because it's offensive.
So, you know, that's all stuff you have to learn. But it's really, I mean, it's worth it because once they see that you really, that you try, that you accept their culture and their way of life, they start opening up and tell you, you know, their stories, their anecdotes about armadillos, about wildlife in general. And, I mean, I've learned so much from them. For example, there was a disease they called peachy plague.
I found out about it while talking to the locals. Oh, yeah. Here a couple of years ago, it rained a lot. And then the armadillos, they had infections in the skin and they died and we had local extinctions.
And I would never have found out about that had I not talked to the locals.
So, you know, it's also important to see that aspect and learn from them.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, I absolutely could not agree more. The cultural part is so important and I love that it's now becoming much more of a thing in all aspects and research. And, you know, I'm technically in conservation travel and wildlife travel, but the cultural and human aspect is just as important, if not more important, especially in these pristine, beautiful areas that we're trying to protect because. Because of the people that are there, the wildlife is still there. So we got to understand both sides of it. So, yeah, I love that you bring that up. Right? That's so true. It's so true.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
So, yeah, I must say, I mean, there are things that I could never study in the field and I, or locals would tell me about and I couldn't find out more about it in the field because armadillos dig boroughs and, you know, I can't tell you how many times we would drive a thousand miles, 1500 miles, searching for armadillos and we wouldn't see a single one.
And you get frustrated. But then at some moment I said, well, I need to change something.
And then we were just driving back from the field discussing that I said, well, maybe we should keep some armadillos under human care to study them.
And then it was a road, a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. And then there was a dog sitting there. I mean, it was at least 10 miles away from the next house and about 50 miles from the next village. And, you know, what is that dog doing there?
And so we stopped because there's no water.
And so we gave the dog water, and he jumped into our truck. We said, well, that's a sign.
That's a hunting dog, a trained armadillo dog. So if we can't find them, why not use trained dog to find armadillos?
Well, so, yeah, we were very happy with that because we thought, well, that will solve one problem, because we were not convinced about keeping armadillos under human care. And so we brought the dog home, and he jumped off the truck and was very happy. And so I showed him an armadillo, and he ran away. He was scared of.
So.
Well, that plan was botched.
I think he got that trauma. I went armadillo hunting and got lost, but I don't want to see any armadillo in my life, so.
Well, that's how we got our first dog. He was the sweetest dog, but he was definitely not useful for my research.
But, well, then we decided, well, if that doesn't work, we'll keep armadillos under human care. So we built enclosures in our backyard, obviously, with all the legal authorizations, permissions, etcetera.
And I started keeping our medillos to study their reproduction, their physiology, their behavior, a little bit of everything. So, yeah, that was. That was interesting, because I would also get other armadillos because the authorities knew that I was taking care of these armadillos. So they would bring me confiscated animals and asked me if I could rehab them. And that's actually how I built my armadillo colony that I still keep in my backyard after 20 years.
Then, of course, if you have a colony, you cannot mix them with wild animals because they could carry a pathogen that then infects your colony. So I had to keep these animals separately. So, at some moment, I had about a dozen armadillos in my backyard. I had the pink fairy armadillo in my living room, and then in my laundry room. I had about four armadillos in rehab.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Yeah, we were the crazy people in our neighborhood, I would say. So I don't know if you've ever heard about screaming, hairy armadillos.
No.
Well, their name says it all.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: They scream.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: They scream like a piglet. And when they're scared, they scream. And they're about that size, about 800 grams. They have huge ear. They're really. Yeah, I mean, you have to get on our website, xenortrans.org, we have a whole section, new section for kids now, where we have species description. And this screaming Harry Armadillo description has an audio where you can listen to a screaming Harry Armadale scream. The thing is that they scream. I mean, it's like a piglet or a baby. And I just got one that had been bitten by a dog, and I needed to clean its wounds every day, twice or three times a day. Each time I would pick it up, it would start screaming, and I would always look outside.
I was waiting for the police to appear at some point. Right.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Just like baby torture or something. Like, what is going on in their house?
[00:42:22] Speaker B: What is that?
It was really. Yeah, that was one of the funny, funny stories that, I mean. Yeah. I couldn't just go around and tell my neighbors that I had a screaming hairy armadillo in rehab. I mean, but it was really every single day for two months, it would scream at me.
Yeah.
And then I also had, well, told you about the Harry ArmadIllo that I was Hand Reading.
That was also a very funny story because I got that. And, I mean, I had to feed it every 2 hours. So I would have to take it to my office, and I had a box there where I would leave that tiny little hairy armadillo. And I would feed it every 2 hours. And sometimes, you know, I would come back to my office and the armadillo was gone.
And then I would have to go and visit every single lab in our institute to see which of the graduate students got my hairy Armadillo. And was sitting there and reading papers online and, you know, just petting the Harry ArmadillOS.
I mean, it was. Yeah, the pet of our institute. The problem is that it got very imprinted, and it was A male. And my enclosures have been built for a Smaller armadillo species. So Felipe, which was that hairy arm dillo, at some moment, I mean, it needed to dig and learn to dig and build up muscle mass. So I would leave it in one of the pens.
They're open pens, and my smaller armadillos cannot get out of there. But he was larger, so he would always, you know, escape and then run to our house and. And open the window, get inside and search for shoes.
So he had an obsession with shoes. And wanted to mate with shoes.
Now, here's the thing. As I told you, we had an international mammalogy congress here in Mendoza, where the IUCN also held workshops. And so all the IUCN people were here, all the big guys, important guys, and they knew about my armadillo colony and said, oh, we want to see an armadillo. So, you know, I would drive to my house and go to backyard and show them my armadillos. And, yeah, Felipe would climb out of his enclosure, and we'll start chasing people's shoes.
So.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: I didn't get famous because of my knowledge about armadillos, but because of my horny armadillo.
So that was the talk of the congress, thanks to my horny armadillo.
[00:45:42] Speaker A: That is hysteric.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
You wanted to hear everything. Yeah, we have scary story. We have very weird stories like this one, but, yeah, that's life in conservation and wildlife research.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
Oh. Oh, my gosh, Mariela, you are amazing. And, yes, every single spectrum of the story, we have scary, life threatening stories. We have unbelievable stories, like, oh, my gosh, I don't know if there's anything else we could possibly cover. It's amazing.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: I have a love story for you.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: I. Oh, okay. That's the last one. A love story.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Last one, too. Yeah. So as I have these open pens in my backyard, I got a puppy, giant schnauzer puppy that my partner wanted, a giant schnauzer. And I was kind of worried because I thought, you know, they had a lot of character and we couldn't control it. So since day one, I would take it to the pension and would put Winka, that little puppy, inside the pens so that he would, you know, get to know the armadillos and that then later on, he wouldn't chase them and kill them.
And so, yeah, he will play around, and the armadillos will walk around his feet and everything. So, yeah, and he really liked that. And so over the years, I would see that he would always jump into one of the pens where a female lived, and he would just lay down and would wait for that armadillo to come out of its burrow.
And that little female wasn't scared at all because the other armadillos, they would just, you know, run to hide somewhere, but she would come out and she would climb over his paws. I mean, giant schnauzers have huge paws. And he had that big beard, typical of a giant schnauzer, and he would just, you know, put his head on the armadillo and she would be foraging, and he would just watch her and. And just. I couldn't get him out of that pen.
And so that was every day. And the problem is that the species I work with, the peaches, they hibernate from May to October, so from May to August, so they don't emerge during that time or very rarely. And so Winka, you know, he would go to the pen, and his friend wasn't there. And so he would, in October, he would start just jumping into her pen and wait for her to emerge.
And, I mean, it was unbelievable to see how she would then emerge after hibernation and the re encounter.
I mean, that was such a funny love story. I mean, you would never expect such a big dog to be in love with an armadillo. And Daddy Armadillo wouldn't be scared, and especially after hibernation. So the first few days after hibernation, I mean, there were. I couldn't separate them. And she would just, you know, she would lie between his paws, and he would hold his head on her, and they were just, you know, enjoying being together.
Now, the strangest thing that happened, I mean, usually my. My peaches live nine or ten years, and she was 14. She was really. She was the oldest armadillo I had.
And my dog got sick last year, got cancer, so cancer treatment didn't work. And in December, we had to euthanize him. And that's the day that Armandillo disappeared. She died the same day as the love of her life.
[00:50:06] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: Never seen.
I cannot explain it. I mean, there are things and in life you just can't explain. But, I mean, I filmed them so many times because I just couldn't believe it. You know, I always thought, well, at someone, he will jump on her and try to bite her. He would just lick her carapace.
So wink.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: This needs to be a Disney movie. Can you, like, pitch this to Disney? Like, so just, like, send them a video, wink on the armadillo, and be like, this is like, this is the craziest love story, and it's real. Can you guys just run with this?
[00:50:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it is really strange. You know, it's. I can't explain it, but I will think back.
I mean, it was the nicest dog. He never attacked any other armadillo either, but it was just with that specific female that was that huge connection they had.
So.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: Wow.
Oh, just like last time, Mariela, I could talk to you literally all day.
I feel like we've just scratched the surface of your number of stories. So maybe. Maybe we'll have to do a part two sometime. But wow, this was so amazing and so much fun and so very entertaining. And I can't. I can't believe everything we just talked about. That was wild. I did not expect any of that. So thank you for coming back on the show with me, sitting down and sharing these fantastic stories. I'm sure everybody will be just as entertained as me.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Well, thank you. I mean, as always, I had lots of fun, and I hope there will be a third session, a third podcast. I'm sure we can come up with some topics that we can talk about.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. Preferably in Argentina. In Mendoza. Maybe at wine or three.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: Exactly. I was just going to tell you, we need to do that with a glass of wine. Sitting here, enjoying nature, looking at armadillos and chatting about armadillos.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: I'm gonna dream about that tonight and manifest it in my dreams. It's gonna happen. Regala. It's going to happen.
I'm coming down. South America is happening. So I'm just gonna keep going south and we're just gonna hang out.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that would be cool.
Well, then I hope everybody enjoyed that. If you want to know more about armadillos, let us know.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: And of course, yes, absolutely. I'll have all the show links in the show notes. And of course, everybody go back into the archives and listen to Mariela's first amazing episode on the show. So all of that will be linked so everyone could do a deep dive and hear way more about the science and the research of what you do, too. So this is the, these are the fun stories. But, you know, in between the science and in between the papers and all this stuff, this is what happens in between to get those. So.
Oh, wonderful. Thanks so much, Mariela. I can't wait to get.
[00:53:32] Speaker B: Thank you, Brooke. Great. Thank you so much. Take care. See you next time.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: Thank you for joining me on this wild adventure today. I hope you've been inspired by the incredible stories, insights, and knowledge shared in this episode. To learn more about what you heard, be sure to check out the show
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