This Is Why Farmers Kill EVERYTHING That Enters Their Territory

foreign [Music] was recently filmed in a field in the municipality of Benito Juarez in Argentina one can see a mother cow standing over her newborn calf which seems to be struggling with some kind of incredibly unlikely danger the little armadillo seems to be attacking the calf intentionally targeting the stomach it's remarkable that earlier in the same field they found three dead newborn calves with their entrails hanging out this strange discovery made many people wonder why an armadillo would do such a thing in the first place to get to the bottom of things we need to understand what we're dealing with here armadillos are small mammals that boast powerful Limbs and large claws these claws are usually used for digging and searching for food they're omnivorous creatures which means they don't mind eating anything from small vertebrates insects and larva to plants and certain fruits armadillos are also known to feed on carrion but the calves were still alive the armadillos who killed the Cavs were probably trying to defend their territory as you know they mark their homes with urine feces and excretions of scent glands so the calves could have just found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time also male armadillos can become aggressive trying to keep their Rivals away from potential females during mating season it might seem to us it's hard to mistake a calf for another armadillo but no one knows how armadillos see the situation foreign especially since it's not the first time when armadillos attacked animals that can't possibly compete with them for females and it's not just calves a couple of years ago a video emerged on the internet showing an armadillo first biting and clawing a small Lamb by its neck then grabbing it by the ear and trying to drag it away no one knows what would have happened next if the farmer hadn't intervened this Behavior seems odd because most people don't even realize that large armadillos can and will attack animals this big there are observations of armadillo attacks on deer fawns and even area a flightless bird which looks like an ostrich in both cases armadillos tried to drag these animals away into their Burrows by the way some believe that armadillos might act like that due to their poor eyesight they rely on their sense of smell and hearing to Target their prey and then bite the most vulnerable parts of the body like ears and noses can you tell if it's a Lamb's Ear by the smell alone I'm not sure Nature's blessed armadillos with impressive weapons which they used to attack virtually anyone the Giant armadillo native to South America is known for its large claws which it uses to dig out food although these animals are usually not aggressive if they sense a real threat they'll defend themselves and do so very successfully just think about it with a body length of about 3.2 feet its largest claw can grow up to nine inches long making armadillos the animals with the longest claw to body ratio among living animals if humans had the same proportions as armadillos our nails would be over 12 inches long just imagine how long it would take Steve to write the script then in addition to their impressive claws armadillos are known for their strong carapays which protects them from predators and other dangers the carapace consists of plates that cover most of the armadillo's body the Same carapace by the way can carry an unexpected risk to humans when touched the plates curl up so they can pinch your finger so try not to touch armadillos with your bare hands which are related to armadillos are also dangerous yeah slots these weird and incredibly slow creatures can also be aggressive and this applies more to two toad sloths than the three-toed ones two-toed sloths are larger stronger and have more powerful claws which they use to defend themselves when threatened or stressed therefore they should always be handled with Care Professionals working with sloths stick to the following rules physical restraint must be gentle but at the same time firm and performed by at least two people using leather gloves attempts to forcibly restrain a sloth are likely to be unsuccessful or even dangerous it's not just the claws one should watch out for but also the teeth yes we're still talking about sloths ah but back to armadillos which not only have the longest claws they also have a whole bunch of teeth the Giant armadillo is a leader in the number of teeth among land mammals boasting 80 to 100 teeth in its mouth to some this figure may not seem very impressive especially when compared to sharks the thing is mammals are the least toothy creatures on Earth and giant armadillos are an Undisputed leader when it comes to tooth count foreign armadillos boast of well at least the fact that they're considered one of the oldest surviving groups of mammals these animals have hardly changed their distinctive shape since they appeared this supposedly happened about 48 million years ago in fact the hard carapace of bone plates and long thick claws seem to hint that they came straight out of the prehistoric era of course as is common for extinct animals ancient armadillos were much larger than modern individuals and were called ecliptodons the largest of them could weigh up to two tons and all ancient armadillos had a powerful mace-like Spike tail their outer carapace consisted of layered bone deposits inside the skin similar to what we see in tortoises today the last known specimen that went extinct at the end of the last ice age 12 000 years ago weighed about 1.5 tons it was a direct relative of modern armadillos it belonged to the same evolutionary group sort of like a very very tough great grandfather well if for some reason you still doubt that armadillos can be very intimidating creatures here's a fact for you not too long ago scientists discovered strange giant tunnels and yes spoiler alert these were the Burrows of the ancient relatives of armadillos technically of course they were giant sloths but they did have claws too in 2010 amokar atomy with the Brazilian Geological Survey first investigated rumors of an impressive Cave of Unknown Origin to his surprise inspection revealed the cave was not the result of any natural geological process the researcher had been to other caves nearby formed by water but they looked quite different upon a closer look the scientists found claw marks on the ceiling they were huge finding no natural geological explanation for how the cave came to be he concluded that it was a burrow dug by an extinct animal the tunnels must have been created at least eight thousand to ten thousand years ago when these creatures roamed South America in great numbers the size of the Burrows varies one of them was about a thousand feet long and another Borough said to have been over three thousand feet long so if you're ever come across a mysterious burrow or tunnel in your backyard be careful what if it was made by a giant sloth or an ancient armadillo that forgot to go extinct the natural tendency of armadillos to dig can create a cave not only somewhere far from the city but also right under your house of course it'll be smaller because these animals aren't as big as they used to be in prehistoric times but their digging's been found to undermine foundations concrete slabs driveways pools and other structures digging near walls and Foundations is especially dangerous because it compromises the Integrity of the building yes in theory an armadillo could be the cause of a house collapse these animals have also been known to weaken dams along rivers and streams digging long tunnels that are used as Escape Routes or Nets this can lead to costly restoration or repair work if timely measures aren't enforced naturally with such a strong urge to dig everywhere they can the armadillos couldn't miss cemeteries because of this people even started thinking armadillos were digging up Graves to eat the corpses but don't panic just yet even though armadillos tend to eat carrion they won't actively dig up dead people to do so in fact it's easier for the animals to dig where the ground is soft such as in a freshly filled grave and all they're looking for there is insects nevertheless as you've already realized armadillos can be a source of real problems and pose a real threat to people the armadillo problem in Sapphire North Carolina became so serious that a specialist was needed to fix it homeowners were outraged when these mammals began tearing up their lawns and they hired a man as an armadillo Bounty Hunter quite literally he was offered a hundred dollars for each dead carcass he produced however the armadillos did so much damage that the hunter started working on a retainer he prows around the properties at night armed with a rifle but claims it's like hunting aliens it's really hard to catch and kill an armadillo the standard 22 rifles used on armadillos don't seem to kill them immediately one day the animal was shot but it still managed to hop and run away also it's easy to mistake armadillos for garbage or rocks at night because their body absorbs light and their eyes don't reflect it as I said armadillos have poor eyesight but a keen sense of hearing so the hunter has to use a heat-sensing scope to pick up warm body areas he can sneak up on in addition hunting can be dangerous for humans bullets have been known to Ricochet off armadillo's armor and hit shooters and once an armadillo almost killed actor Morgan Freeman not because he was trying to hunt the animal of course in 2015 Morgan Freeman was flying to Texas for filming and his private jet hit an armadillo during takeoff at high speed the Collision first blew the plane's tires and then severed the hydraulic line thankfully the pilot quickly realized what had happened and alerted spotters on the ground how serious the damage was when officials discovered signs of the accident on the runway it was decided to proceed with an emergency landing air traffic controllers sent Freeman's plane to Tunica because it has a long Runway that would have been necessary for a safe landing if the aircraft's brakes were non-functional first the pilot who by the way acted in a super professional manner was burning off fuel to reduce the likelihood of fire on Landing unfortunately during this very Landing Freeman's plane skidded Off The Runway before stopping no one was injured well except for the plane what happened to the armadillo that caused the incident is unknown although in general this Situation's not that unique or even unusual in the United States alone a total of 86 000 Wildlife strikes have been reported in the last decade planes have hit bats coyotes raccoons skunks opossums desert hairs prairie dogs cats dogs foxes bull snakes Turtles armadillos alligators what alligator Steve you gotta be kidding me well there were alligators Badgers at least one woodchuck an elk and several rather ominous sounding unknown terrestrial mammals there are even databases on collisions with deer and bald eagles in various States and they're pretty let's just say depressing the good news is that the likelihood of human injury or death from such a collision is low over the 23-year period between 1990 and 2013 only 25 people were killed in aircraft Wildlife strikes that number's relatively small when you consider that in the U.S there were about 50 000 takeoffs and landings every day in all airports moreover many birds fly through the airspace every day so some of them will inevitably collide with airplanes that's just the way life is many airports try to keep the animals away from runways they build walls use special pulsating lights and certain sounds to scare off birds so I think you shouldn't be afraid though to be honest after today's video I'll never look at armadillos the same way again see you later

Channel: WATOP

Views: 559,698

Keywords: WATOP, Wa Top

Id: 80TQtxsfFpI

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023