Giant AnteaterGiant Anteater

© Martin @ Negaro/Flickr

Scientific name is Myrmecophaga tridactyla

Giant Anteater

Found in Central America (Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) and South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia).

What habitat do they live in? Giant Anteaters can live in grasslands, woodlands and rainforests.

© Emily Y Horton

Why are they threatened?

The biggest threat comes from habitat loss. The habitat of the Giant Anteater is used by people for farming and development.

Giant Anteaters are hunted by Jaguars and Pumas, but its biggest enemy is people.

People hunt the Giant Anteater for food, or because they are a pest, or to catch and keep as a pet.

Giant Anteaters are also killed on roads or when the grassland they live in is burnt by farmers.

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Click here to learn about other threats to the Giant Anteater

How do they communicate?

Giant Anteaters are quiet animals and mostly just snuffle at each other, but if two males get into a fight they may bellow quite loudly.

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What do they eat?

They use their long sticky tongues to ‘lick-up’ insects.

Giant Anteaters eat ants. They also eat termites and some other insects.

They have no teeth, but they swallow small stones with the insects and this probably helps them grind up their food.

Strong claws used to rip open ant and termite mounds

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How big are they? From nose to tail they can be 2 metres long.

What do they look like?

They have rubbery skin, covered in stiff, long hairs.

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Long, narrow nose and head, and a long tongue.

They have long bushy tails.

They are grey in colour with a black stripe running from just under the chin to along the shoulder.

Look at the picture. How big do you think Giant Anteaters are? Click to find out

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Tell me about their babies:

After giving birth to just one baby, the female will carry it on her back for nearly a year. When it is strong enough the baby will get down to walk around on its own sometimes.

How long do they live? It can take 3 years for a Giant Anteater to reach full size and weight (to ‘grow up’), and they live for 16 years.

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If they are threatened they will run away, or stand up on their back legs, using their tail as a prop, and defend themselves with their strong front legs and claws.

The tongue of a Giant Anteater can be up to 60 cm long.

Interesting facts:

Giant Anteaters are quite good swimmers.

© Hugo del Castillo

In Paraguay in December 2009 Leticia and Pepe, from a conservation organisation called Guyra Paraguay, were walking along a trail in the Dry Chaco.

Click here to see where the Dry Chaco is in Paraguay

Map of Paraguay

Dry Chaco

Click to see a picture of the Dry Chaco

It was a very hot day and they had been surveying (collecting information) on animal tracks and signs since very early that morning.

A story from the wild:

Pepe turned around and saw that a Giant Anteater was walking across the trail in front of them. Here is the photo of Pepe, you can see the tail of the Giant Anteater as it crossed the trail in the distance.

A story from the wild:At 10 o’clock in the morning it was already too hot to do much more work, so they decided to take pictures to include in their reports.

Leticia took a photo of Pepe and suddenly started to shout ‘oh...freeze! freeze!’

Click to see the photo Leticia took.

© Leticia Lopez

Click again to see what Pepe was looking at.

If you choose the Giant Anteater as your fundraising focus, your donation will go towards World Land Trust projects for the conservation of wildlife habitat in Paraguay.

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