‘The holy grail of mammals’: one man’s mission to learn the secrets of the giant armadillo

A life-changing encounter with the secretive creature led Arnaud Desbiez to dedicate his work to saving it from extinction

Arnaud Desbiez, a French-born conservationist, lived in the Brazilian Pantanal for years before a chance encounter changed his life – and he wasn’t even there for it. His wife, tapir conservationist Patrícia Medici, came upon a giant armadillo one night in 2009 while working in the field. Hearing the story lit a fire in Desbiez.

“This was my dream species, the holy grail of all mammals,” he says. “I said, ‘You know what? If I could just see it.’”