Spring 2025: ICAS project update

Our charity has worked with Dr Arnaud Desbiez and his team at the Wildlife Conservation Institute (ICAS) in Brazil for over a decade to safeguard threatened giant anteaters, giant armadillos and their rapidly disappearing habitat. This team has made incredible strides in making habitats and roads safer for giant anteaters and discovered nearly everything that is currently known about giant armadillos.

Arnaud recently updated us on what’s been happening with ICAS’ giant anteater and giant armadillo conservation work in the past few months.

Two orphan giant anteaters have been released

We are excited to announce that we recently released two rehabilitated giant anteaters from their pre-release enclosures. Eliza & Luar have undergone health checks and been equipped with cardiac monitors and GPS collars.

It is quite a long journey for giant anteaters that are rescued. After they are found they are nursed back to health, trained to feed independently in their release enclosure and, if their behavior and health permit, the door to their release enclosure is finally opened. We then continue to provide supplementary feeding near the enclosure and monitor each animal weekly through telemetry.

After three months, animals are recaptured for an in-depth health check. If all goes well, 15 months later the collar is removed and the release is considered a success. Camera traps in the area then continue to monitor the released animals when possible. We still have one orphan that is set for release, Tito, who is at another ranch in his pre-release enclosure and should be returned to the wild in the next few weeks.

Despite all our efforts and dedication, only 50% of the orphans can successfully thrive in the wild. For a variety of reasons, including being too habituated to people or health problems, some of our giant anteaters have to remain under human care. In this video we explain how these animals also play a crucial conservation role in zoos as ambassadors for their wild counterparts.

Arnaud Desbiez at the entrance to a burrow IMAGE Jess Wise 2022

First two giant armadillos captured in the Cerrado

We are also excited to announce that we have caught an adult female (34 kg) and an adult male giant armadillo (40 kg) in the Pombo Municipal Park, where we have been working for three years. In addition to the Pantanal, this is now our second field site where giant armadillos will be monitored through telemetry to study their movement. However, in this case, the park is an island of protected native vegetation surrounded by a human-altered landscape.

The female was named Connie by our friends at the Whitley Fund for Nature and the male is named Gerald in celebration of Gerald Durrell’s 100th birthday. At the moment we are only using GPS tags on the armor of the animals so we will monitor them for about 40-60 days.

The captures of both these animals were quite extraordinary as they were found through chance encounters while searching for animals at night, rather than placing a trap in front of an active burrow. A special congratulations to our biologist Gabriel Massocato who led both captures.

Giant anteater monitoring

Since we currently monitor 26 giant anteaters in three field sites, there is always something to report. Animals are monitored and visually inspected at least once every two weeks, and we download their positions online every five days to check on them. Currently we are monitoring 17 adults, six juveniles and three pups that have recently left their mother. We also have five animals that have dispersed and have been found up to 60 km from where they were born.

We will carefully analyse their movements as they disperse through the landscape so we can better understand what habitats are most suited to them and facilitate their movement, and what elements act as barriers. One of the animals that has dispersed, named Kate, is close to the BR-262 highway, crossing it on occasion, so I am a bit concerned.

The others seem to have established themselves in safe areas. However, no area is completely safe in the human-altered landscape of the Cerrado. Cecile, a female giant anteater, was killed through a collision on a dirt road during the Christmas holiday. I was so sad, especially since she was named after a childhood friend who visited and participated in her capture.

Eliza is one of the recently released back into the wild orphan giant anteater who was rehabilitated by the TamanduASAS program IMAGE Nobilis Fauna 2025

New boxes for the delivery of the Queen Bees! IMAGE ICAS 2025

Queen bees are being distributed to certified beekeepers

As part of our work to promote co-existence between beekeepers and giant armadillos, we have now distributed 280 queen bees to 14 beekeepers and in the next few months we plan to distribute a further 600 queen bees to 25-30 beekeepers. We only donate these queen bees to small-scale beekeepers that do not formally commercialise their honey, but rather sell it informally at local markets. This work is such an important tool to engage with beekeepers.

New wildlife warning sign proves to be effective

After almost four years of research we have produced a new wildlife warning road sign to try and reduce wildlife vehicle collisions. We tested its efficacy by measuring the speed of vehicles on the road and interviewing drivers, and we now have the results!

They indicate the new signage is more effective than regular signs currently used, both in reducing the speed of vehicles and in increasing the attention of drivers. The average reduction in speed was 5.45%, with trucks showing even greater reductions, especially at dawn (16% speed reduction). In addition, 73.33% of drivers considered the new signage more effective in warning about the risk of collisions with animals.

We have just submitted our report and hope this sign can replace current wildlife warning signs. However, we do stress that the most effective mitigation measures are fencing combined with underpasses and aerial bridges. To prevent collisions we need to prevent animals from being on the road in the first place. However, since we cannot fence the whole highway this new sign is a powerful additional tool.

New Wildlife Warning Signs proves to be effective IMAGE ICAS 2025

Fencing of the BR262 at specific hotspots is one of the mitigation measures that has been approved by authorities as a way to avoid having wildlife crossing IMAGE 2025 ICAS

Highway Mitigation Measures to be installed

In Brazil, federal authorities have opened a bid for engineering companies to install fencing and aerial bridges along the BR-262 highway. We have been monitoring the BR-262 since 2013 as it is one of the most famous highways in Brazil, crossing the Pantanal. This highway is often referred to as the “highway of death”, with over 3,000 medium-to-large sized vertebrates dying every year, often involving very serious collisions with people.

After over 10 years of constant lobbying, field work and some disappointments, we are so relieved to see that the mitigation proposal we collaborated on in 2022 has been approved! Once implemented this will serve as a great example of why we should invest in mitigation measures. I believe this will be a game changer, and with our Observatory up and running after 12 years working on this issue, I feel more optimistic.

Every piece of news shared in this update is the result of years of hard work. Regardless of highs and lows and a variety of challenges, we always keep our focus on our long-term goals. As always, none of this work would be possible without the long-term funding, mentoring and support from so many of you. Please celebrate each one of these victories, especially the implementation of mitigation measures on the BR-262 highway. I hope this brings you joy.

We would like to thank the players of People’s Postcode Lottery for their generous support which has helped this project.