Nature has created many amazing animals, but the one that will be discussed in the article is at the forefront of this list. The giant three-toed anteater, whose photo is in front of you, is listed in the IUCN Red List.
This is a large animal with a narrow, tube-like muzzle, long tongue and luxurious thick fur coat. His natural lifestyle is as amazing as his looks.
Giant anteater: photo, description
As mentioned earlier, the appearance of the three-toed representative of the fauna is very unusual. The giant anteater is the largest predator in South America. Its body length reaches 1.30 m and weighs 40 kg. A meter fluffy tail is added to the length. The limbs do not allow the predator to move quickly, but they are armed with powerful claws (1-7 cm).
The head is small, but the muzzle is extremely elongated (25-30% of body length) and narrow. The beast practically cannot open its mouth due to the fact that the jaws have grown together. At the end of the muzzle-pipe are nostrils and a tiny mouth. The anteater has no teeth. The tongue, 55-60 cm long, has the most powerful muscles. Wool of a three-toed handsome manthick, hard and unusually resilient. The muzzle is practically without hairline, towards the body it becomes longer and longer, turning into a voluminous mane located along the ridge. There are the same fluffy frills on the paws.
The tail is the pride of the anteater! It is covered with long hair (60 cm). This beauty hangs down to the ground. With such a tail, the animal can easily hide like a warm blanket.
Most often the coat color of the giant anteater is silver, with a gray tint, sometimes cocoa color is found. A wide black stripe runs diagonally across the entire body, from the chest to the sacrum. The lower part of the tail, underbelly and head is black-brown in color.
Habitat
The giant anteater comes from South America. For the last million years, representatives of this species live in sparse forests and shrub savannah. The "home" of these animals is the territory from the Gran Chaco in Argentina to Costa Rica in Central America.
Wildlifestyle
The anteater is quite peaceful, the main thing is not to anger or threaten it. All day long he only does what he walks in search of anthills and termite mounds in order to feast on insects. Other predators try to bypass this clumsy lover of goosebumps. He does not run away from danger, but turns to the enemy, stands on his hind legs and puts him in a "deadly embrace", launching his sharp huge claws into his body. The anteater never attacks first.
You can't call anteaters homebodies, and they don't even have a home. Throughout their lives, they roam, moving from place to place, and do not equip their lair. They prefer to live in open and semi-open areas. The large anteater is a terrestrial animal, climbing trees is not in its habits and capabilities. In the daytime, these predators like to sleep, relax in a secluded place, and are active at night. The anteater cannot walk fast, and even more so, run - the claws interfere with it. To somehow move, the beast bends them.
What does the anteater eat?
The giant anteater mainly feeds on ants, this is immediately clear from the name of the animal. The menu of an amazing predator includes caterpillars, termites, centipedes, wood lice, insect larvae. If you can't get your favorite food, the animal will happily eat berries. Watching an anteater eating near an ant pile is very funny. First, he makes a hole in the insect house with his claws. Then he sticks a thin long sticky tongue into it. The beast penetrates them into all the nooks and crannies of the anthill, where hundreds of insects stick to the tongue.
Interestingly, in captivity, these animals easily adapt to a more varied diet. They eagerly eat fruit, meat, boiled eggs and even milk. Only before feeding, the food must be crushed, and the meat must be ground into minced meat, because the anteater has a very small mouth. It just won't push big pieces into it.
Mating season
The giant anteater is one of the animals that roam alone. Pairs, of course, meet, but not a male with a female, but a mother who raises her cub. Only when the mating season arrives, which happens every year in spring and autumn, do anteaters meet to conceive. Having done his duty, fertilizing the female, the male proudly retires, returning to his lonely life of an eternal wanderer. The female will have to bear the cub for about six months, and then take care of it herself.
Care for offspring
Anteaters breed very slowly, because there is only one small cub in one litter. It is born covered with hair, the weight of a newborn cub is about 1.4–1.8 kg. The maternal instinct of the female is extremely strong: she devotes her whole life to offspring. Not having time to raise one cub, the female is already caring for another. When the baby anteater is born, he almost immediately settles on his mother's back. From that moment on, the cub travels with her in this way. When you look at this small family, you don’t even immediately notice that a cub is sitting on the back of the female, so his fur merges with the mother’s fur.
At the age of one month, a small furry predator is able to move independently. He no longer rides on his mother's back, but literally follows her on her heels. This continues until the young anteater is two years old. Only at this age does the animal become independent and can do without the care of its mother.
Giant anteater:interesting facts
Experts studying the world of anteaters managed to learn many interesting facts about these animals:
• The predator's language works with unique speed. The giant anteater ejects and retracts it about 150-160 times per minute.
• The length of the tongue is about 60 cm, which has no analogues among terrestrial inhabitants.
• During the day, the anteater is able to eat about 30,000 insects.
• The muscles that control the tongue attach to the sternum.
• The anteater's teeth are in its stomach, which is extremely muscular. On its walls there is a hard keratinized lining.• Insects enter the animal's stomach alive, and keratinized spikes in the palate and folds on the cheeks prevent them from getting out.
Anteater and man
The natives of South America at all times hunted giant anteaters for meat. But the number of these animals was inexorably reduced not only for this reason. The fact is that they depend on specific sources of their habitual food. Their natural habitats were destroyed, and as a result of such human activities, the species of these amazing predators was on the verge of extinction.
It's getting harder to meet the giant anteater in the wild. It is sad to state the fact that in zoos their numbers are also insignificant, despite the fact that in captivity these predators take root perfectly. Only by creating favorable conditions for the survival of anteaters, people will be able to help such unusual creatures of nature to restore their numbers again,and they will not be threatened with extinction.
