Armadillo firelighting!?!?!

[Galemys]

Hi All,

while googling for spark based firemaking methods I found this:

Euphractus sexcinctus
KH Redford, RM Wetzel - Mammalian Species, 1985 - JSTOR
[I]... Euphractus tails are used by Argentinian Indians to carry firemaking tools
and to strike with flint for sparks (Mares et al., 1981a). ...[/I]

Link:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0076-3519(19851213)3:252<1:ES>2.0.CO;2-7

Euphractus sexcinctus is a species of armadillo that lives in south america.

Now I know of striking sparks with flint & steel, flint & iron pyrites, quartz on quartz, flint & bamboo, bamboo on bamboo, but flint & armadillo-tail?!?!
As far as I know the bodies of armadillo's are covered in bony plates for protection, which doesn't directly sound to me as if they can cause a spark.

As I don't have access to the article I can't even make out for sure if "to strike with flint for sparks" really refers to the tail of the animal or to the "firemaking tools" that are carried in it.

Has anybody heard of this rather unusal method of firestarting?
Or better still, has anyone access to the article?

Tom (who's a bit puzzled…)

PS If you happen to have a spare armadillo, send it to me...

 

[British Red]

I have to try this...can we go halves on an armadillo? I wonder if a pangolin would work.......

 

[Galemys]

I have to try this...can we go halves on an armadillo? I wonder if a pangolin would work.......

It didn´t say if the armadillo has to be dead or not so splitting a live one would be a bit tricky...

I bet you can light a strike-anywhere-match with both the armadillo and the pangolin.

But seriously, if anyone has full access to the article or knows more about this particular method of sparking (or about the armoured plates of armadillo´s, for instance if there is any silicate in it) , let us know.

Tom

 

[oldsoldier]

I've ran em over in Florida a few times (they are literally everywhere), and never once did they, or my car, catch fire. Hope that helps!

 

[Mungo]

Well, further reading reveals that the tails are used for carrying their firelighting equipment. Poor little armadillos.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Euphractus_sexcinctus.html

"The armadillos are killed for their tails, which are used by Argentinian Indians for carrying their firemaking tools."

Something I found interesting about 20 years ago while driving across the Colorado and New Mexico with my old high school girlfriend is that Armadillos - when startled - freeze and then leap vertically about 4 or 5 feet. This reflexive behaviour seems to account for the number of dead Armadillos littering highways in the southwest US. If they were only to remain frozen still, the trucks would likely ride right on over them with out injury. Silly armadillos.

Also, their offspring are often multiple twins - genetic copies of one another.

Finally, they are the only other creature who develops leprosy - upon whom leprosy bacteria can live - and are therefore used for research into this disease.

Now I can list another useless piece of trivia - their tails are used to carry firelighting equipment!



Mungo

 

[Galemys]

If it is true that sparks can be generated with their tails, a looooong time ago an armadillo that hit a piece of flint while flipping it´s tail could have beaten us humans with discovering fire...

Tom

 

[Biddlesby]

Haha that's something to think about.

On a more basic level of questioning: you can use flint with bamboo?

 

[Galemys]

On a more basic level of questioning: you can use flint with bamboo?

Hi Biddlesby,
yes you can, I tried with a (thick) piece of regular bamboo at home and got some dullish sparks on an irregular basis. They were hard to direct though and seem to come only from the shiny outer layer. In 19th century Borneo there was a special kind of hard bamboo used for this type of firestarting called bulu temiang. BOD has just located some of this so in the near future there may be a BCUK katalysed revival of the method! Some 19th century travel books also mention bamboo used on bamboo to strike sparks.

There´s more about it here, kind of hidden in a thread about the fire thong (maybe it deserves it´s own thread?)
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=10517&highlight=papua

I guess you don´t have a spare armadillo-tail lying around?

Tom

 

[Biddlesby]

Hang on, let me check...wombat, scorpion, porcupine...nope fresh out of armadillo sorry .

Cheers for the info though! Today I have learnt something. Or two things from this thread, but one method probably more useful than the other.

 

[BobFromHolland]

flint on bamboo...
bamboo on bamboo...
flint on armadillo...

...

Seems like a jollie good recipy!

Bamboo on armadillo.. The ultimate survival cooking
killing and cooking with one blow!