anteaters complete anatomy behavior and history

Other threats include hunting-both for food and because some humans consider giant anteaters pests-and their low reproductive rate. Not only do these fires affect the habitat, but also the animals-giant anteaters may suffer significant burns. One of the major threats giant anteaters face is the loss of their grassland habitats due to fires set by sugar cane growers who traditionally burn their fields prior to harvest to remove the plant’s outer leaves, making the cane stalks easier to cut. Listed as a vulnerable species, they are considered extinct in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Uruguay. Threats to survivalĪccording to the IUCN Red List, giant anteaters are the most threatened mammals in Central America. The giant anteater's claws are some four inches long, and the animal can fight off even a puma or jaguar. A cornered anteater will rear up on its hind legs, using its tail for balance, and lash out with dangerous claws. Pups leave their mother after two years, when they’re considered fully grown.Īnteaters are not aggressive, but they can be fierce. Females have a single offspring once a year, which can sometimes be seen riding on its mother's back. Giant anteaters are generally solitary animals. These animals find their quarry not by sight-theirs is poor-but by their sense of smell, which is 40 times more powerful than that of a human.

Giant anteaters never destroy a nest, preferring to return and feed again in the future. Ants fight back with painful stings, so an anteater may spend only a minute feasting on each mound.

But it has to eat quickly, flicking its tongue up to 150 times per minute. The giant anteater uses its sharp claws to tear an opening into an anthill and put its long snout, sticky saliva, and efficient tongue to work. They can often be found in tropical and dry forests, savannas, and open grasslands, where the ants upon which they feed are abundant. To thrive, they need to be able to move throughout large areas with patches of forest. Giant anteaters can be found throughout South and Central America, though their numbers have diminished considerably from the latter. It is covered in grayish brown fur with white front legs, black stripes running from its chest to its back, and a bushy tail. As the largest of all four anteater species, the giant anteater can reach eight feet long from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail.

But their long tongues are more than sufficient to lap up the 35,000 ants and termites they swallow whole each day. Current Population Trend: Decreasing What is the giant anteater?Īnteaters are edentate animals-they have no teeth.

Anteaters complete anatomy behavior and history