Large Hairy Armadillo

Chaetophractus villosus

The large hairy armadillo, Chaetophractus villosus, is a burrowing armadillo of southern South America, common in parts of Argentina and present in neighboring Bolivia, Paraguay, and Chile. It is also known as the big hairy armadillo or peludo. Its arched armor has movable bands across the middle, and the body, limbs, and shell margins carry coarse pale hairs that help give the species its name. Stockier and colder-tolerant than many armadillos, it uses strong foreclaws to dig dens in grassland, scrub, semi-desert, and agricultural edges. Its diet is broad, including beetle larvae, worms, roots, fruit, eggs, carrion, and small vertebrates.

Private keeping is unusual and may be regulated, but the species appears in some zoos, rescue settings, and wildlife research programs. Captive management has to allow for digging, hidden resting sites, abrasion-resistant flooring, and secure barriers, because armadillos can undermine weak enclosures. Diets are usually built around insect protein and varied produce rather than dog-food-only shortcuts. In rural areas the large hairy armadillo may be hunted, eaten, hit on roads, or treated as a nuisance when burrows affect fields and buildings, yet its tolerance of disturbed land has helped it persist where other wildlife has declined.