The southern three-banded armadillo is an armadillo that tucks its head and legs beneath its hard shell and curls up for defense.
Its body is covered in hard, brown-toned plates. Because the carapace is not attached to the skin along the sides, it can tuck its head, legs, and tail inside when it curls up.
Three-banded armadillos were long thought to reuse burrows dug by other animals. Researchers studying free-ranging Southern Three-banded Armadillos at two sites in Central Brazil observed them digging small burrows themselves. They also recorded straw nests and shallow depressions covered with leaf litter as resting places.
Researchers located and saw the monitored animals on 445 occasions; 67% of these records showed an animal resting. Southern Three-banded Armadillos used small burrows for 76% of resting sites, straw nests for 13%, leaf-litter depressions for 7%, and combinations for 4%. Sixty percent of burrows where an armadillo was resting had inconspicuous entrances covered by grass or leaves.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Small rodents, small lizards, and tegu lizards were recorded entering or leaving burrows dug by Southern Three-banded Armadillos. The authors note that these burrows may also benefit other species. The study also records straw nests and leaf-litter depressions as resting places.