Making Hotel Armadillo #2
In the field…. By Producer / cameraman Justin Purefoy
FILMING THE ARMADILLO BABY…..
Giant Armadillo’s are one of the most illusive creatures on earth, with scientist Arnaud Desbiez referring to them as a ghost species.
Deep in the remote wilderness these nocturnal animals spend up to three quarters of their lives underground, which makes filming them an almost impossible mission.
But the crew here at Maramedia were up to the task teaming up with Giant Armadillo specialist, Arnaud Desbiez. Working together we all had one goal, to be the first to film these incredible creatures and finally uncover their secrets.
It was a usual day in the office when I got a phone call that really changed everything. It was Arnaud and he announced that the Giant Armadillo, Isabelle, had had a baby.
We knew how rare it was for a giant armadillo to have a baby and no one in history has ever filmed the interaction of the mother and baby together in the wild. I knew exactly what I had to do, I dropped everything and rushed straight to Brazil.
After three days of travelling we finally made it back to the Pantanal, where we had originally been filming the Giant Armadillos. The transmitter in Isabelle had stopped working meaning we had to search the bush and tracks for signs of her again, but we stayed determined.
We walked for ten long hours in blistering 40 degrees heat. We searched high and low desperate for any sign of Isabelle.
I can admit, I was starting to believe we would never find her. Then suddenly, just when I thought all hope was lost, Arnaud appears around a bush excitedly gesturing he’d found the baby burrow.
The relief overwhelmed me as I realised this was it, we finally had a golden opportunity to film this very rare unique moment that we could have only dreamed of.
I set 4 remote camera traps up around the burrow and 3 infrared lights which were powered by 2 car batteries. Then all we could do was wait.
Then it happened. After 5 long days Isabelle brought her baby out of the burrow and into the world.
But to Arnaud and his team 5 days was nothing compared to the 2 years they had been waiting for this beautiful moment.
As I look back this was definitely the most memorable part of the entire experience. The team effort had paid off, and for the first time ever we had on camera images of a mother and baby giant armadillo interacting under the tropical night.
Lindsay McCrae, wildlife cameraman on Hotel Armadillo shares his experiences…
I remember very vividly my first encounter with the giant. The sight of the creature could only be described as a scene from an early 1900s monster movie.
To properly tell you about the experience let me begin from the start.
Filming in the Pananal had been a dream of mine for a long time so when Maramedia asked me to help them with their Armadillo documentary it was an opportunity I couldn't ignore.
The incredible bird life, the prospect of close encounters and the magical light it has to offer had me very excited. I just kept thinking as long as we are lucky with the weather things should run smoothly….
After the first night of success our problems began. Our batteries were enormous yet only lasted a few days, rodents seem to enjoy biting through our expensive cables and the ants realised that using the kit to climb across was much quicker than negotiating branches!
We travelled to Brazil with 30 cases & quite an array of camera kit to cover almost every scenario in the aim of capturing footage of this elusive animal. We relied heavily on camera traps which soon became our number one option to capture intimate behavior of the armadillo.
But luckily with the Armadillo Projects radio tracking programme we were able to pin point exactly where a couple of individuals were.
I could then set up and operate a camera from close by as it got dark with the hopes of filming individuals leaving their burrow.
One advantage was that, despite being nocturnal and living underground, Giant Armadillos have pretty poor eyesight.
So rigging a couple of bright lights to be able to film in colour gave us an even better chance of capturing unique footage.
I'd done a couple of filming stints on previous nights but with no luck, but on one night I knew it was going to happen.
As soon as the sun set I could hear the Armadillo underground thumping & scratching at the earth.
That’s when I saw it.
Approaching the burrow entrance, its footsteps became louder. Getting my first shot I remember shaking struggling to believe my eyes.
The animal was so prehistoric it didn't look real. It had huge front claws, bizarre back legs & gnome like ears, but the one thing that’s surprised me most was its sheer size.
In comparison I think a small sheep would be about the same. After maybe only five or six minutes of testing the air it disappeared out of view to begin its night feeding. It was a remarkable experience and fantastic to capture on film.
In the end the camera traps helped reveal the wealth of wildlife that would visit the armadillo burrows and even gave us our first images of a newly born armadillo baby, which is a broadcast first.
Fergus Gill , Camera Assistant on Hotel Armadillo
Getting to see a Giant Armadillo in the flesh is such an extraordinary privilege, as most people in the Pantanal have never had the chance to see one.
So when we got the chance to go try and film them for Maramedia’s new documentary it was an exciting task.
Towards the end of our first trip we went to check on one of our camera taps in dense woodland, as we approached the burrow we could see small feline paw prints in the sand, snaking their way through the trees, leading right to the burrow.
It was definitely the trail of an ocelot, they were so fresh, definitely from the last 24 hours. We excitedly went to check the trap hoping for a glimpse of this beautiful cat but found nothing, not one clip of anything, never mind the ocelot.
Exasperated we walked the length of our cable run, quickly finding the cause. As we’d seen at times with some of our other traps the rats had started nibbling the cables, and this time cutting through the wires causing the whole system to fail. But we didn’t give up.
The most exciting moment came in our final few days in the Pantanal. Justin and I were out checking footage from some of the camera traps - after the familiar rat visitors something else appeared in shot – a female southern tamandua with her baby. We watched as the female carried her large infant and left it down one of the old burrows. We were silent as we worked quickly to change over the truck batteries for the lighting rig and left before we caused any disturbance. A few days earlier we’d gambled by placing a two cameras in the burrow, one facing into the chamber and one looking up the tunnel towards the entrance. At that time we could only hope they’d captured some magical never before seen moments of the mother and her infant underground. It was almost a month later that we finally saw incredible the results.
Another great part was when we caught footage of a Giant Armadillo, called Tracey, in person.
She was undoubtedly our superstar not only coming out of her burrow at a reasonable hour but doing so when Lindsay was there to film her in person.
We would never have been able to do that with the other animals, she just had such a distinctive character that was so tolerate of new sights, smells and sounds.