ant eaters:

Strange-looking mammals

Today we are featuring one of the most strange looking animals to be seen in the world - The anteater. At first many researchers thought that this animal was actually an evolutionary mistake. It seems to be made of the leftover parts of the rest of the main animal groups such as the cats, fish and even birds. However, after years of research, it has been discovered that these animals which are mammals have been made by nature in the most perfect way to suit their lifestyle as you will see below.

Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a term which is used to describe the four mammal species under the sub order vermilingua. The main characteristic of this group of animals is that they are all in fact anteaters! (They eat ants) They are usually solitary animals to be found in Southern or Central America.

The main subgroups of anteaters include: the Giant anteater, (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), the Silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) and the Tamandua(Tamandua tetradactyla). The term anteater is commonly used to describe the aardvark, numbat, echidna and pangolin too. However, these animals are not at all related to the four species, but they are all edentate (don?t have teeth) and use their tongues to swallow insects. Anteaters can make about a 150 flicking movements of their tongue per minute. If they could not do this, they would get stung and bitten by the hundreds of ants they eat every day.

These animals have extremely poor eyesight, but they make up for it with an extremely keen sense of smell. Although anteaters have no teeth, recent studies suggest that they may flex their jaws to chew. They also use powerful stomach muscles and a strong palate to grind up the ants and termites they consume.

The anteaters tails are used as a fifth limb when climbing trees, because it is very strong.

Most of their communication occurs between young and their mothers, or during fighting. It consists of snorts, sniffs, and hisses, as well as roaring during fights.

Wild anteaters spend most of the day looking for food. They usually hunt on land, and their normal diet comprises ants and termites. They also eat other insects like grubs, and in general, prefer to eat insects that do not have jaws or any self defense mechanisms that make it hard for the anteaters to digest.

These animals are very well developed for feeding patterns. Using their excellent sense of smell they locate their prey. Once they find a suitable snack, they attack. They eat by using the long, sharp claws on their forelimbs to tear open insect colonies and tree trunks and they then use the tongue to collect the eggs, larvae, and other insects.

The salivary glands secrete sticky saliva during feeding that coats the tongue. They only stay at one ant colony for a short period of time because the soldier ants will otherwise arrive and attack them.

The main difference between the species is the varied colours on individual creatures. The colours vary between grey and brown, but a distinctive black stripe which ascends from the toes to mid torso is common in all anteaters. This stripe is usually outlined by a thin light coloured stripe-white to light grey.Theories suggest that the different colouring on anteaters are more or less a way for these animals to camouflage themselves in their surroundings.

Reproductive behaviour is primarily observed in captivity. Gestation (pregnancy) is exactly 190 days, after which females give birth to a single young that weighs about 2.8 lb(1.3 kg).

Females give birth standing up and immediately the young anteater climbs onto her back. and will stay with the mother until she becomes pregnant again. The baby spends much of the first part of its life riding on its mother?s back, until it is nearly half her size.

Young are born with a full coat of hair and adult-like markings. Breeding occurs year-round in captivity and in the wild, though seasonal breeding times have been reported in portions of their range. The time between pregnancies is as low as nine months.

The Giant anteater

Comprising a variety of unique body features, the giant anteater is undoubtedly one of the strangest creatures known to roam the forests and savannas of Central and South America. It is however designed especially for what it does best: eating ants and termites.

As its name suggests, the giant anteater is the largest existing species of anteater. Adults grow to be between six and eight feet long and from 65 to 140 pounds in weight.

It has a three to four foot long torso and a bushy tail of up to the same length. The hair is long, straight and coarse, except when it is very young. The bushy tail is particularly coarse, and it resembles straw - the tail is usually a different and darker colour than the rest of the body.

Its head is long and looks like a tube. Compared to its brain (which is relatively small compared to its body size), the skull is particularly large-extending up to almost 18 inches in length. It has small eyes and round ears that stick out of the sides of its head. Its sense of smell is estimated to be as much as 40 times stronger than that of humans.

Opinions vary about this creature?s sense of hearing, because some argue that it is clear and well developed while others argue that it is poor and not developed.

The giant anteater has an extremely special tongue. It measures more than two feet long, and is important for the anteater. It uses it in order to transfer the ants or insects from the nests/mounds straight into the stomach. The tongue is coated with sticky saliva secreted by large glands in the neck. It is also covered with tiny spine-like bumps, which aids the eating process. The tongue is attached to the sternum and moves very quickly, flicking 150 times per minute.

It has four toes on each front paw, but they are all different in size. The inner toe is hardly visible and at first glance can be mistaken as a bump. Two of the other front toes are very large and heavily clawed, while the third, also heavily clawed is twice as long as the others.

The giant anteater?s foreclaws are long and powerful, as they were designed to rip open ant and termite hills and to defend itself against predators. These claws fold against the palm when not in use. The hind paws have claws too, though these claws are much smaller than the formidable fore claws.

A wild giant anteater consumes an amazing number of insects - often times up to 30,000 in just one day! It may sometimes eat fruit. Captive anteaters have extremely different diets. The menu usually includes items like gruel mixes, mashed fruits and veggies like avocados and bananas, hard-boiled eggs, ground beef, dog kibble, and the occasional handful of insects.

Since the anteater has no teeth, it is assumed that the pebbles and other debris that is swallowed by the animal in the wild actually aids it when eating its food. The anteater will use its powerful jaws to crush the insects, and this is followed up by the use of its strong stomach muscles to mash them up.

The wild giant anteater rarely spends more than a few minutes feeding at any one nest before moving on to find food elsewhere. It is careful not to totally destroy any one nest because that way it will always have more food the next time around. It will generally rip up a small part of an ant/termite hill, and the remaining ants/termites will fix that area very quickly.

Giant anteaters can breed as often as every nine months, though it is often longer. and give birth to a single offspring. By two years the young become independent.

Silky anteater

The silky anteater also called the pygmy anteater is the only living species in the Cyclopes genus and the Cyclopedidae family. A silky anteater is roughly the size of a squirrel. It is the smallest member of the anteaters, with a total length ranging from 360 to 450 mm (14.1-17.7 inc) and usually weighing less than 400 g (0.88 lbs).

It has a dense and soft golden brown fur coat, a short snout and two enlarged claws in each forepaw which it uses to cling on to branches and also to defend itself if needed. Its tale is both long and prehensile - this means that it can hold and swing on to branches using the tail (like in the giant anteater it is used as a fifth limb).These animals are normally found in ceiba (silk trees), which is the perfect camouflage for these silky, golden animals. Mainly nocturnal the Silky anteater usually spends the day sleeping in a dry nest or in the hollow of a tree. At night it goes hunting for insects but will eat fruit if insects can not be found.

One anteater may eat up to 8,000 ants per night! It usually drinks the dew droplets off leaves or absorb the moisture because it rarely gets down on to land to drink water.

The Silky anteater lives mostly alone or with its mate. After a pregnancy period of five to six months, a single baby is born, usually high up in a tree.

Both parents care for the youngster, and when it begins to be weaned, they bring back pre- digested insects for the baby. Sometime the male carries the baby around with him on his back. At approximately nine months, the youngster begins to go out on its own, and by one year, it is full-grown.

Silky anteaters live in tropical forests ranging from southern Mexico through Bolivia and parts of Brazil. They are usually found high up in trees under the shelter of the thick leaves to avoid birds of prey. Because these animals only come out at night, they are rarely seen. When walking their long claws get in the way and to compensate these anteaters walk on the outsides of their feet.

Tamandua or collared anteater

Found mostly in South America in terrestrial and arboreal habitats on Savannas, the edge of woodlands, and even cultivated land the tamandua like most anteaters has an elongated snout, although it is less so than the giant anteaters. Its coat is bristly and brownish yellow in colour, with black, red, and brown markings. The tail is partly prehensile and covered with hair for more than half of its length. The end of the tail is completely hairless and covered with scales. Its legs are strongly built, and its front feet have four toes (hence its species name tetradactyla meaning ?four toes?). The third toe is the largest and strongest, with a very long claw. The hind feet have five toes. The tamandua is about two feet long, with another two feet added on for its tail. It weighs between 10 and 15 lbs. The tamandua feeds on ants and termites which it catches with its long, sticky tongue. Unlike the giant anteater, however, it can climb nimbly (quickly) up trees in search of its prey.

A distinctive feature is the unpleasant smell it emits when in danger. It also assumes a strange posture to scare away its enemies: standing upright on its hind legs with its front legs spread wide in front of it.It emits a shrill call when threatened.The lifespan is two years.In spring the female gives birth to a single offspring, and for a long period carries it clinging to her back or flanks.The lifespan is two years.

-Shalindri PERERA