Brazil's World Cup armadillo facing extinction, says nature watchdog

The animal that inspired Brazil's 2014 World Cup mascot, the three-banded armadillo, faces extinction as its natural habitat is destroyed, an international watchdog warned yesterday.

Brazil's population of the scaly-backed animal has shrunk by more than a third over the past decade as the area covered by the dry shrubland where it lives has halved, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said on the eve of the tournament's kick-off.

The Brazilian armadillo - which provided the inspiration for World Cup symbol Fuleco - was named as one of many species under threat worldwide.

The IUCN, which works with governments, the United Nations and environmental groups, also warned that 94 per cent of wide-eyed primate lemurs are threatened with extinction.

Of the 101 surviving species, 22 are under threat - including the biggest, the large-bodied Indri, and the smallest, Madame Berthe's mouse lemur - the Switzerland-based body said. Lemurs are threatened by destruction of their tropical forest habitat in Madagascar.

Political uncertainty and rising poverty have accelerated illegal logging, the IUCN explained, adding that hunting of the animals for food had also emerged as a serious issue.

In the plant world, the group warned that close to 80 per cent of temperate slipper orchids now face extinction.