This armadillo has a rounded shell and can curl into a ball by fitting its head and tail shields together when threatened.
Its domed, sandy-yellow to brown shell has movable bands. The triangular head and tail shields fit together when it curls into a ball.
Researchers mapped suitable habitat and connectivity for the Brazilian Three-banded Armadillo using scattered occurrence records from northeastern Brazil. Their models identified savanna and grassland as the most suitable environments. Upland areas in the Caatinga were predicted to have greater likelihood of allowing dispersal between areas.
Records of remaining populations were spatially associated with cores of natural vegetation. A land-cover comparison estimated that 76% of these natural core areas had been lost over 30 years. The study also reported that nearly six million hectares of natural vegetation had been converted to pasture and agriculture over 35 years.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The models associated remaining population records with natural-vegetation cores and estimated that 76% of those cores were lost in 30 years.