An ocarro in its natural habitat was sighted in the village of La Cachivera in the municipality of La Macarena, by the Cormacarena camera traps installed to identify and study wild species that can hardly be observed in the middle of nature.
This sighting is the first that has been made of an ocarro in the wild, because until now, the only one that can be permanently observed is the one that is under the care of professionals in the Bioparque Los Ocarros, in Villavicencio.
The ocarro, also known as the thunder armadillo, is the largest in the world among the 23 known species. In Colombia there are six of them, of which five live in Meta. It is an animal of great ecological importance, since other species such as snakes and limpets cohabit in the burrows where it lives; It has lost its habitat due to deforestation and is at risk due to the consumption of its meat.
The camera traps or phototraps that detected this mammal are part of the four that have been installed this year in Lejanías, La Macarena, Vista Hermosa and Villavicencio, which make up the system of 22 suitable cameras in the municipalities of San Juanito, San Martín , Cabuyaro, Restrepo, Cumaral, Puerto Gaitán and Mapiripán and with which places for wildlife conservation actions are identified.
Source: Cormacarena