Crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside

Armadillo

Greater Hairy Armadillo
Chaetophractus villosusAn armadillo from the Dasypodidae, they can grow up to 16 inches in length. There are two species in the family and they are known for the long hairs along the side of the animal.

The most numerous armadillo in South America found in grasslands , forests and savannahs. They are accomplished diggers and can obtain oxygen from the soil without inhaling soil particles due to specialist membranes. We originally designed the aviary with lovely potted plants these were soon removed from the pots, and so we re-designed their enclosure. We have built a large box and filled it with around 100kg of bark to dig in, they spend most of there time in here rooting around for food.
They also like their large tubes of cork bark where he hide food for them like in the next photo.

 They have a varied diet with up to 60% oof this being fruits , they also eat a lot of insect foods and even small mice, birds and eggs.
Armadillos have developed a ridge of bony plates along the back which gives it protection against its predators. Another way of escaping predators is to dart in to a burrow and use there very strong legs to wedge themselves in. They typically have one to two young a year.

Here is an image where you can see the individual plates that makes the armadillo , armoured.

This pair are extremely curious getting their noses into anything and everything, i even had one half in my pocket today.