Not-Friendly-At-All Anteaters Eat Exactly What You Are Thinking
Anteaters are long-tailed animals with unusually long skulls and tube-like muzzles (an animal nose). Anteaters are one of the four still-existing species of toothless, insect-eating mammals found in tropical savannas and forests from southern Mexico to Paraguay and northern Argentina.
- Anteaters are one of the three surviving families of a once distinct group of mammals that occupied South America.
2. There are four known species of anteaters: giant anteater (or the ant bear; the largest of the four), northern tamandua, southern tamandua (the collared anteater or lesser anteater), silky anteater (or pygmy anteater).
3. They begin at their breastbone and can stretch up to two feet long.
4. Their tongues are in backwards-facing spines with super-sticky saliva, helping them to collect maximum bugs.
- Anteater Mothers carry their baby anteater on their backs for their protection.
6. Anteaters have enormous, knifelike claws with tilted paws so long and sharp, so they walk on their knuckles or wrists to avoid hurting themselves.
7. Anteaters are anti-social animals, avoiding humans and other animals, including each other. One researcher noted that in between rounds, searching insects, they swiped at each other with their fingernails.
8. You may not believe it, but the anteater is the mascot of the University of California at Irvine, chosen by popular vote in a 1965 contest.
9. Anteaters are also called locally “stinkers of the forest.” Because when in an emergency, they start fizzing and shoot a skunk-like stink bomb under a tail of glands.
10. Giant anteaters are six to eight feet large and can weigh up to 140 pounds. They can also eat up to 30,000 ants in a day.
11. Tamanduas and giant anteaters feed on a termite mound in shorter than a minute before going on to the next one.
12. Male anteaters are very secretive about their private parts as they keep their testicles inside their bodies.
13. Surprisingly, Silky Anteaters are cute and tiny, weighing less than a pound each than the other species of anteaters.
Here is a bit of advice for you: do not try to be friendly with anteaters. They have a very defensive attitude and may harm you violently.
Blog Edited By Ritika Gupta
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