Since the week has been “screaming” by for me, I figured we would talk about an incredible animal from South America called the Screaming Hairy Armadillo. Okay, so maybe the “screaming” pun was forced a little a bit but this week really has been flying by. We are going to talk about the appearance of this crazy animal but I figure you can guess two things right off the bat. Yes, that’s right, we are in fact, studying a hairy armadillo that likes to scream. Once again, the people who name these animals are not very creative!

As mentioned, you can find the Screaming Hairy Armadillo throughout the dry, desert areas of central South America. They tend to spend most of their days lounging around in deep burrows to keep out of the intense head of the afternoon sun. Once the aforementioned sun decides to set, our little Screaming friend will come out to forage. So if you happen to be an insect, lizard, snake or a plant in this area, then you better sleep with one eye open. Well, I guess that doesn’t apply to the vegetation but I am sure they can keep an leaf open or something like that.

Okay, so I guess we should talk a bit more about the bizarre name of this Armadillo. As I said, these animals do have long hairs that grow between their protective plates. I am not sure what the purpose of this hair is but I am willing to bet they have bed head after napping all day in their burrow. Well, I guess it would technically be called burrow back instead of bed head. Similarly, as their name implies, these hairy armadillos are screamers. When the Screaming Hairy Armadillo is threatened they will begin to make a loud screaming or squealing sound to scare off the threat. Again, I am not sure how well this tactic works but I personally would be confused if a Hairy Armadillo started screaming at me.

So that does it for the second last Wild Fact of the week. See you tomorrow for the week finale!