Lets go hide in the forest! Escape behavior of Chaetophractus vellerosus to Tala forest remnant in Buenos Aires province, Argentina

Abstract

We analyze the movement decisions made by screaming hairy armadillos (Chaetophractus vellerosus) after release fromcapture by researchers in an agricultural field with patches of remnant Tala forest (Celtis tala) in the warm and the coldseason. The armadillos prefer to hide in Tala forest if they are closer than 70 m to a forest patch, indicating that they perceivethe forest as a ?familiar site.? The probability that C. vellerosus choose a Tala patch for escape was higher during the warmseason than during the cold season, perhaps because the low vegetation height during the warm season allows C. vellerosusto easily detect Tala patches. Habitat fragmentation due to various land uses could represent an increasing threat for the relictpopulation of the screaming hairy armadillo in the pampas region.