Mary Allen
It is unmistakable: a powerful body, a small head with a long snout, and light and dark markings are the characteristics of the giant anteater.
Characteristics
What does the giant anteater look like?
The giant anteater belongs to the anteater family and thus to two groups of animals with strange names: the accessory jointed animals and the toothless order.
These animals are called accessory articulates because they have additional articular protuberances on the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and they are called edentulous because they have no teeth.
The giant anteater is 100 to 120 centimeters long, its tail measures 70 to 90 centimeters. He weighs 20 to 50 kilograms. The most striking feature is the long, thin snout: It measures up to 45 centimeters and has only a tiny mouth opening through which the up to 60 cm long, worm-shaped, sticky tongue fits.
The thick fur, up to 40 centimeters long, is grey-brown, buttocks, hind legs and the long and bushy tail are darker brown. A broad black stripe bordered with white runs from the strong neck and shoulders to the back, which becomes narrower and narrower.
The front legs are also conspicuous: they are almost white and have a broad, black transverse band. The front and hind feet each have five toes with claws. The three middle claws of the front feet are 10 centimeters long; they are perfect tools for digging and defense.
Because the small head with the small ears and the thin snout looks so dainty and the thick and long hairy tail looks so powerful, the shape of the giant anteater looks very unusual. Females and males look the same, females are sometimes slightly larger than males.
Where do giant anteaters live?
Large anteaters are at home in Central and South America. There they occur from southern Mexico to Paraguay and north-western Argentina.
Large anteaters live mainly in savannas and gallery forests – these are the narrow strips of forest that run along the banks of rivers and streams. However, sometimes they can also be found in swampy areas and in agricultural areas. The animals stay only on the ground.
Which anteater species are there?
In addition to the giant anteater, there are also the northern and southern tamandua and the pygmy anteater, which is just 20 centimeters tall. The northern tamandu lives from southern Mexico to northern Peru, the southern tamandua in South America to northern Argentina. The pygmy anteater is found from southern Mexico to southern Brazil.
How old do anteaters get?
In captivity, anteaters can live up to 25 years, but in the wild, they usually don’t live that long.
Behave
How does the giant anteater live?
The giant anteater is a loner, each inhabiting a territory. Although it has no fixed boundaries, it is definitely defended against conspecifics.
Anteaters are diurnal and wander long distances through their territory in search of food.
They spend the night hiding in the bushes or in hollow tree trunks. Only if their territory is in regions inhabited by humans do they shift their forays into the night, because then they feel safer and less disturbed. Anteaters can’t see very well, but they can hear well. The sense of smell is best developed.
They use their nose to detect termite nests and break them open with their powerful claws. Then they take the prey out of the nests with their long tongues. However, they never completely destroy the nests, allowing the termite or ant colony to recover.
Because the claws on their front legs are so elongated, they have to walk on their knuckles. For this reason, their gait is usually very leisurely and they are not particularly fast. In a fast gallop, they can only cover short distances.
Friends and foes of the giant anteater
Only large cats of prey such as jaguars and pumas can become dangerous to the anteaters. However, they are quite strong and when threatened, they stand up on their hind legs and defend themselves with their dangerous, razor-sharp claws.
The animals’ greatest enemy is man: large anteaters are hunted for their fur and meat. Anteaters that live near human-occupied areas and have shifted their activity time to the night are hit by cars relatively frequently.
How do anteaters reproduce?
Only when it is mating season do male and female anteaters get together for a short time. After courtship and mating, they separate again. About 190 to 195 days after mating, the female gives birth to a young. It weighs about 1500 grams and is already fully developed.
The cub has a thick coat and looks like a miniature version of its parents. In addition, however, the little ones have a white back stripe. Four to six months, a young is carried around by the mother exclusively on her back, it only crawls down to suckle. The little ones only become independent when they are about two years old and leave their mother. Anteaters become sexually mature at the age of three to four years.
How do anteaters communicate?
Adult anteaters do not make any sounds, only the young sometimes emit a bright trill.