On an otherwise flat stretch of road through farmland in Brazil, a large mound of red dirt had appeared — one that hadn’t been there just hours earlier.
At first glance, it might have seemed the dirt had been dumped there by a tractor. But that wasn’t the case. For farmer Silmar Domanski, the source of the mysterious pile was no mystery at all.
While Silmar went about his farm duties, a small animal was hard at work, too. And this was the moment the two crossed paths:
The animal Silmar met that day was a local six-banded armadillo, using her strong claws to dig a burrow for shelter or to search for food.
She paused only briefly as the farmer approached before continuing on with the task at hand.
“They do go a bit overboard with the digging,” Silmar told The Dodo. “[But] they really are beautiful creatures.”
Though a forest lies nearby, these armadillos seem to prefer the fertile farmland, where ants, termites and larvae are plentiful. As tireless diggers, the sudden appearance of dirt mounds like this is an everyday occurrence.
“They really are hard workers, that’s for sure,” Silmar said. “There’s not much we can do about them digging in the roads, so we just drive around them. Nobody bothers them.”
Having the armadillos around may actually benefit the farm — helping keep insect pests in check while also aerating the soil through their subterranean activity.
Getty Images/Pedro Ferreira do Amaral
Working alongside the armadillos — and the mounds they leave behind — is just part of life for Silmar. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“They live here, and their holes remain,” Silmar said. “Every animal has its own role in nature. They were born with a purpose.”
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