The Brazilian three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) will be the 2014 FIFA World Cup Mascot! We are absolutely thrilled that an armadillo listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species will be featured in such an important event. Let's hope this will not only trigger conservation initiatives to save this charismatic little creature from extinction, but also help increase awareness for biodiversity conservation in general.

Two out of ten mammals of Argentina are threatened by extinction. This means that in the 2012 issue of the national Red List, 81 of the 385 known mammals inhabiting Argentina are listed in a threatened category. The main threats affecting mammals in Argentina include habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, hunting, land use conflicts, illegal animal traffic, and diseases.

The Xenarthra have been assessed by members of the IUCN SSC Anteater, Sloth and Armadillo Specialist Group. Out of 18 species, one has been listed as Endangered (EN), two as Vulnerable (VU), five as Near Threatened (NT), six as Data Deficient (DD), and only four as Least Concern (LC).

Fragmentation of habitat has been identified as one of the main factors of biodiversity loss at the global scale because of the negative impact on species richness, abundance, distribution, and genetic diversity. Fragmentation and hunting cause negative consequences for mammal conservation. Armadillos (Order Cingulata) are animals that contribute to the maintenance of ecosystem integrity by intervening in nutrient recycling and soil structure. One of the most threatened tropical forests is the Atlantic Rainforest. In southern Bahia (Brazil), the complex Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) Sierra Bonita protects a large area of high montane forest. It presents an altitudinal gradient between 200 and 950 m asl. The Reserve protects approximately 1,800 ha, with forest fragments embedded in production systems of coffee, cocoa and pastures, and is home to a great diversity of flora and fauna. The objectives of this project are to identify the species present in the area, evaluate the effect of altitude, vegetation type, topography and soil properties on armadillo distribution and building burrows, and study the temporal pattern of use of forest fragments in RPPN Sierra Bonita. Transect methods will be used to record tracks and burrows, and also camera traps, standard techniques for analysis of soils, and GIS. Given the importance of the Cingulata order in the conservation and ecosystem integrity, the effect of fragmentation on species loss and the high conservation value of the RPPN Sierra Bonita for the Atlantic Rainforest, this study earned funds from the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia (UESC), Instituto Uiraçu and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). The team is led by Professor Dr. Martin R. Alvarez and composed of the researchers Prof. Dr. Alexandre Schiavetti, Prof.. Dr. Agna Almeida Menezes, Paulo Henrique Ribeiro Pinheiro, Catalina Sánchez Lalinde, and José Felipe Velez García.

For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin R. Alvarez, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Km 16, Salobrinho, Ilhéus (BA, Brasil), CEP 45662-900, Tel. (55 73) 3680-5445, < http://www.uesc.br/zoologia>, E-mail: malva@uesc.br.

A plot of land having a size of 6.8 hectare in the urban area of Greater Paramaribo, Suriname, and characterized as a forest island, was cleared for the purpose of cattle-raising in October and November 2012. The Green Heritage Fund Suriname (GHFS) was made aware of this by the Animal Protection Society Suriname, who had positively counted 14 sloths (Bradypus tridactylus) to be inhabiting this forest island. The GHFS then contacted the Nature Conservation Division and the owner of the land, and started a sloth rescue action. This action started ironically on the International Day of the Sloth, 22 October 2012, and lasted through 22 November 2012, when the last trees were cleared from the land. Although the Green Heritage Fund Suriname expected to find maybe double the amount of sloths, the total amount of animals collected, of which 90% belonged to the species Bradypus tridactylus, ran into the amazing number of 200 animals. Among the species found or seen, as some could not be captured such as the lesser anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla), were the pale-throated three-toed sloth (Bradypus tridactylus), the two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus), the silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus), the porcupine (Coendou prehensilis), the capuchin monkey (Sapajus apella), and the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus).

The animals were collected by a field team, which worked closely with the operator of the excavator, then transported to a temporary holding place at the home of the Chairman of the Board of the GHFS in Paramaribo. The sloths were then transported to a location in the North of the District of Saramacca, in a multiple-use management area, where they were released on the edge of a patch that still has many hectares of a similar type of swamp forest as where the animals came from. Almost half of the animals were weighed and measured, and some samples were collected for future genetic studies. Animals that needed special care were kept until they were healthy enough to be released and babies under the weight of 1.2 kg were also kept and fed. Most of these babies, with the exception of around 4 animals, were separated from their mothers. A number of females was kept to function as surrogate mothers. These animals will stay at the rehabilitation location until they are big enough to survive on their own and can be released with the surrogate mothers.

If you wish to receive further information or a copy of the technical report when it is published, please contact Monique Pool at info@greenfundsuriname.org.