Giant Anteater
Myrmecophaga tridactyla

giant anteaterDescription
The largest of four anteater species, the giant anteater may be five to seven feet long, from nose to tail, and weigh 40 to 86 pounds. It has a narrow head, long nose, small eyes, and round ears. Its coarse hair may be gray or brown, with a white-banded black stripe running along the body to mid-torso, and a long, bushy tail, which can be two to three feet long. Its front feet have large claws, which are curled under when it walks. It has poor vision but a keen sense of smell.

Home Range
From southern Belize to northern Argentina

Habitat
Grassland savannas, swamps, humid forests, and woodlands

anteater with its tongue extendedDiet
The giant anteater detects termite mounds and anthills with its keen sense of smell and tears them open with its strong claws. Its long nose, which contains a bone tube formed by the fusion of the upper and lower jaws, functions as a vacuum, sucking in the insects. The anteater's sticky tongue—up to two feet long—collects more insects. An anteater may eat as many as 30,000 ants in a day.

Reproduction
After a gestation of about six months, a giant anteater will give birth to one offspring, which will be weaned in a few months. The young will ride on its mother's back for up to a year and remain with the mother for up to two years, or until she becomes pregnant.

Social Structure
Giant anteaters are solitary, except for mothers and their young.

Status
The IUCN classifies giant anteaters as near threatened.

Fun Facts
four species of anteaters and six species of sloths form the order Pilosa. Along with armadillos in the order Cingulata, they in the magnorder Xenarthra, which is Greek for "strange joint." The name comes from a feature unique to xenarthrans: special articulations between the vertebrae in the lower back. Animals in this magnorder also have fused pelvic bones and lack incisors and canines. Anteaters are in the suborder of Pilosa called Vermilingua (animals with a worm-like tongue).

 

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