Anteater

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about true anteaters. For a list of other species which also eat ants, see anteater (disambiguation).

Anteaters

Northern Tamandua
(Tamandua mexicana)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Superorder:	Xenarthra
Order:	Pilosa
Suborder:	Vermilingua Illiger, 1811

Families

Cyclopedidae
Myrmecophagidae

Anteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths and armadillos, they make up the superorder Xenarthra.

Mammal of the family Myrmecophagidae, order Edentata, native to Mexico, Central America, and tropical South America. The anteater lives almost entirely on ants and termites. It has toothless jaws, an extensile tongue, and claws for breaking into the nests of its prey.

Species include the giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, about 1.8 m/6 ft long including the tail; the tamandua or collared anteater Tamandua tetradactyla, about 90 cm/3.5 ft long; and the silky anteater Cyclopes didactyla, about 35 cm/14 in long. The name is also incorrectly applied to the aardvark, the echidna, and the pangolin.

[edit] Physiology

The largest representative of the group is the giant anteater, or ant-bear (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), an animal measuring 4 feet (1.2 m) in length, excluding the tail, and 2 feet (60 cm) in height at the shoulder. It has a long, thin head and a large, bushy tail. Its prevailing color is gray, with a broad black band, bordered with white, starting on the chest, and passing obliquely over the shoulder, diminishing gradually in breadth as it approaches the loins, where it ends in a point. Anteaters are usually mistaken as bears because of their claws and bushy fur.

It is extensively distributed in the tropical parts of South and Central America, frequenting low swampy savannas, along the banks of rivers, and the depths of the humid forests, but is nowhere abundant.

Its food consists mainly of termites, which it obtains by opening their nests with its powerful sharp anterior (front) claws. As the insects swarm to the damaged part of their dwelling, it draws them into its mouth by means of its long, flexible, rapidly moving tongue covered with sticky saliva. A full-grown giant anteater eats upwards of 30,000 ants and termites a day.

The giant anteater lives above ground, not burrowing underground like armadillos or aardvarks. Though generally an inoffensive animal, when attacked it can defend itself with its sabre-like anterior claws. The female produces one offspring per birth.

During much of its first year of life, a young anteater will ride on its mother's back. It is generally acknowledged that giant anteaters have a poor sense of sight but a keen sense of smell. In fact, their sense of smell is regarded to be some 40 times stronger than that of humans. The name of the species, tridactyla, comes from "tri" and "dactylos", which is Greek for "three fingers". However, giant anteaters actually have five toes on each paw (the fifth is a "vestigial" one). The name probably came about because only three of the front toes have prominent claws and can be easily seen. Giant anteaters rarely make sounds. When they do it is mostly when they are young; the sound is a high-pitched, shrilly grunt noise. A baby that has fallen off his mother's back will grunt to its mother either to remind her that it has fallen off or to simply instruct her where it is or to get her attention.

The two anteaters of the genus Tamandua, the Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) and the Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana), are much smaller than the Giant Anteater, and differ essentially from it in their habits, being mainly arboreal. They inhabit the dense primeval forests of South and Central America. The usual colour is yellowish-white, with a broad black lateral band, covering nearly the whole of the side of the body.

The silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) is a native of the hottest parts of South and Central America, and about the size of a rat, of a general yellowish color, and exclusively arboreal in its habits.