Anteaters. Anteaters. Types and photos of mammals. Domestic anteater, a kind and quiet pet Where does the anteater live?
sucked her face into the vacuum cleaner. But when you pay attention to the clubbed legs, you understand that this is an anteater. Nowadays it is fashionable to have wild animals at home, and some animals are very suitable for the role of pets, and this is our case. These cute animals have excellent character and intelligence.
Ant-eater
Characteristics of the anteater
They came to our apartments from America. The anteater has a very strong and prehensile tail, as it is used for climbing trees.
Animal characteristics:
- Body length – up to 65 cm without tail;
- The tail is approximately the same length as the body;
- Color – red, brown, gray, black, and their combinations;
- Life expectancy is up to 6 years.
But the length of the tongue is especially striking - up to 30 cm!
Anteater tongue length They need this kind of language wildlife, since they feed exclusively on ants and termites. Tearing the top of the anthill with powerful paws, they launch their tongue, which is covered with sticky mucus, into the passages. The tongue is very flexible, it penetrates into every passage, dragging hundreds of insects into the animal’s stomach. In a minute, the anteater manages to fire its tongue up to 160 times, eating tens of thousands of ants per day.
Anteater at home
The anteater became a pet quite recently, but has already managed to secure its reputation as a fairly intelligent and unpretentious pet. For example, it is not a problem for him to open the refrigerator and front door by the hand.
The anteater went for a walk They get used to people very quickly, they love children and other pets very much, provided that they do not show aggression towards them. Although they are kind, they can stand up for themselves; one blow from a paw with huge sharp claws is not enough. But let us repeat: anteaters use force exclusively for defense; they themselves are not the first to attack.
A distinctive feature of the animal is its love to be cuddled, played with, and dressed up in clothes and jewelry, as in the photo below.
Anteater in clothes He will not kick or struggle, but will simply lie there and enjoy himself.
They also love to ride in cars, looking out the window with curiosity.
But there is also negative sides maintenance of their home - the furniture will suffer. Anteaters love to sharpen their claws on furniture and walls, and if a cat simply scratches it, it will render the anteater unusable. It will also require maintenance special diet, because it’s unlikely that you have hordes of ants and termites at home.
Animal diet
And 4 products can replace insects:
- Chopped meat;
- Chicken eggs;
- Fruits.
Anteater and refrigerator The only thing is that food needs to be ground, since they have absolutely no teeth. Of course, don't forget to change the water every day. These animals are not prone to obesity, so overfeeding is unlikely.
Buying an anteater
You can buy an animal only in a specialized nursery. You shouldn’t even pay attention to the advertisements; these are most likely smuggled wild animals that may no longer be accustomed to home conditions. No one can guarantee that they are not sick and do not pose a threat to humans.
Grateful anteater The price is very high - up to 6,000 US dollars. This is due to the inability of anteaters to breed offspring in captivity after the first generation. That is, if a breeder produces children from a couple, they will never become parents, and the next pair will have to be purchased in their homeland in America. But for lovers of exotic things at home, this is quite a livable sum.
And remember - we are responsible for those we have tamed!
Life of an anteater at home, video
Domain: Eukaryotes
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordata
Class: Mammals
Squad: Partial teeth
Family: Anteaters
Distribution area
Anteaters can be found throughout Central America, as well as in the southeastern parts of Mexico. IN large quantities these species are represented in the forests of Venezuela and northern Argentina. Southern Brazil and Uruguay are also distinguished by the presence of anteaters.
The favorite places of these animals are forest edges and savannas, which are located no higher than 2000 m. Anteaters can also be found in close proximity to streams and rivers or on trees with a large number of vines.
Description of the large anteater
The anteater is a large land animal, about the size of a large dog. The length of the narrow slender body is from 1 to 1.3 m, the head is long, tube-shaped, the length of the tail is in the range from 0.65 to 0.9 m. The weight of adult individuals is 30-35 kg. The ears, mouth and eyes are small. No teeth. The tongue reaches 60 cm in length, narrow, sticky. The forelimbs are powerful, well adapted for digging, four-fingered, with claws up to 10 cm long on the second and third fingers. The hind limbs have five fingers. The anteater is brown in color, with dark wedge-shaped stripes that stretch from the throat and shoulders to the sides. The coat is hard, feels like straw, is very short on the head, on the back it forms a mane about 25 cm in length, the length of the coat on the tail reaches 40 cm.
Common types of anteater
The family of mammals of the order of edentate anteaters includes 2 genera, 3 species and 11 subspecies, which are common in Central and South America.
The giant anteater is the only representative of the genus Myrmecophaga. The genus four-toed anteaters or tamandua (Tamandua) includes the species Mexican tamandua (Tamandua mexicana) and tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla). The genus Cyclopes includes one species, the dwarf anteater (Cyclopes didactylus).
Mexican tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
The body length of the animal is about 77 cm, the tail is from 40 to 67 cm in length. The muzzle is elongated, curved, the mouth is small, the tongue reaches 40 cm in length. The back has pronounced dark longitudinal stripes that expand towards the shoulders and cover the front legs, like a vest . The rest of the body is light, from white to brown. The anal gland of the Mexican tamandua secretes a secretion with an unpleasant odor, which is why the animal is called the “forest stink.”
The species' habitat includes Central America to southeastern Mexico, South America west of the Andes from Venezuela to northern Peru.
Tamandua or four-toed anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla)
Body length is from 54 to 88 cm, tail length is from 40 to 49 cm. Weight is 4-5 kg. The tip of the tail is bare. The front paws are four-toed, the hind paws are five-toed. The coat is short, hard and thick, bristling. In the southeast of their range, the animals have distinct dark stripes along their backs, which widen toward the shoulders and cover the front legs. Body color ranges from white to brown.
Distributed in South America east of the Andes, southern Colombia and from Venezuela through Brazil to northern Argentina. Lives in forests, on the edges and in savannas near bodies of water at altitudes up to 2000 m above sea level.
Dwarf or two-toed anteater (Cyclopes didactylus)
The smallest representative of anteaters with a body length from 36 to 45 cm (the length of the tail is about 18 cm), weight 270-400 g. Wool Brown with a golden tint, the soles of the feet and the tip of the nose are red. The muzzle ends with a short trunk. There are no teeth, the tongue is long and sticky. The tail is prehensile with a bare tip. The front paws are four-toed, and the hind paws have five toes.
The species is found in Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil and Paraguay. Local residents know the animal as “miko dorado”.
Lifestyle of anteaters
All species lead a solitary lifestyle. The giant anteater lives on the ground and feeds primarily during the day, although if disturbed by people it becomes nocturnal. Tamandua can be active at any time of the day; it is equally at home both on the ground and in the trees.
The dwarf species leads a completely arboreal lifestyle and is active mainly at night. All species can dig, climb and walk on the ground. However, the giant anteater rarely climbs, preferring to stay on the ground, while the dwarf anteater, on the contrary, is comfortable in trees and reluctantly descends to the ground.
Tamanduas make nests in tree hollows; giant ones dig small depressions in the ground in which they can rest for up to 15 hours a day. For camouflage, they cover their body with a huge shaggy tail. Pygmy anteaters usually sleep with their arms wrapped around a branch and their tail wrapped around their hind legs.
Individual sites of giant representatives of the family in places of abundance of food can be only 0.5 km2 in area. Such areas exist, for example, in the tropical forests on the island of Barro Colorado (Panama). But in places where there are not many ants and termites, one giant anteater may require up to 2.5 hectares.
Nutrition
Anteaters feed exclusively on insects and not all of them, but only the smallest species - ants and termites. This selectivity is due to the lack of teeth: since the anteater cannot chew food, it swallows insects whole, and in the stomach they are digested by very aggressive gastric juice.
In order for food to be digested faster, it must be small enough, so anteaters do not eat large insects. However, the anteater makes the work of its stomach easier by partially grinding or crushing insects against the hard palate at the moment of swallowing. Since the food of anteaters is small, they are forced to absorb it in large quantities, therefore they are in continuous search.
Anteaters move like living vacuum cleaners, tilting their heads to the ground and continuously sniffing out and drawing everything edible into their mouths (their sense of smell is very acute). Possessing disproportionately great strength, they noisily overturn snags, and if they encounter a termite mound on their way, they cause real destruction in it. With powerful claws anteaters destroy the termite mound and quickly lick the termites from the surface.
During the feast, the anteater's tongue moves at tremendous speed (up to 160 times per minute!), which is why it has such powerful muscles. Insects stick to the tongue thanks to sticky saliva, salivary glands also reach huge size and are attached to the sternum, like the tongue.
Reproduction
Mating in giant anteaters occurs twice a year - in spring and autumn, other species mate more often in autumn. Since anteaters live alone, there is rarely more than one male near one female, which is why marriage rituals these animals do not.
The male finds the female by smell; anteaters are silent and do not give special calling signals. Pregnancy lasts from 3-4 (for the dwarf) to 6 months (for the giant anteater). The female, standing, gives birth to one calf, rather small and naked, which independently climbs onto her back. From that moment on, she carries it on herself all the time, and the cub tenaciously clings to her back with its clawed paws. At the giant anteater little cub It is generally difficult to detect because it is buried in the mother's coarse fur.
Tamandua females often, while feeding on a tree, place the baby on some branch; after completing all her business, the mother takes the baby and goes down. Anteater cubs spend a long time with their mother: for the first month they remain on her back inseparably, then they begin to descend to the ground, but remain associated with the female for up to two years! It is not uncommon to see a female anteater carrying a “baby” almost equal in size to her on her back. Puberty different types reach in 1-2 years. Giant anteaters live up to 15 years, tamanduas - up to 9.
Enemies in nature
In nature, anteaters have few enemies. In general, only jaguars dare to attack large giant anteaters, but this animal has a weapon against predators - claws up to 10 cm long. In case of danger, the anteater falls on its back and begins to clumsily swing all four paws. The external absurdity of this behavior is deceptive; the anteater can cause severe wounds. Small species are more vulnerable; in addition to jaguars, large boas and eagles can attack them, but these animals also defend themselves with the help of their claws.
In addition to turning over on their back, they can sit on their tail and fight off with their paws, and the pygmy anteater does the same thing while hanging on its tail from a tree branch. And tamandua also uses an unpleasant odor as additional protection, for this local residents They even nicknamed him “the forest stink.”
Conservation in nature
Local residents rarely hunt anteaters for meat; Tamandua skins are used in artisanal tanning, but only insignificantly. However, the giant anteater has disappeared from much of its historical range in Central America due to habitat destruction and human activity. In South America, anteaters are often hunted for trophies by animal traders. In some parts of Peru and Brazil they were completely exterminated.
Tamandua is also persecuted - it defends itself effectively, so they hunt it for sport with dogs. Tamanduas often die under the wheels of cars. However, the most serious threat to these animals is habitat loss and the destruction of the few insect species on which they can feed.
Keeping an anteater at home
Keeping such a pet in your home is really very funny and exciting. House anteater He can easily do without his own cage and, believe me, you won’t offend him by doing this, because who would rejoice at being locked behind bars. When you have such a friend in the house, you should get used to it and accept the fact that this is, to some extent, almost like a small child.
So it would be a good idea to allocate a separate room for him, in which, by the way, you can lock him when you leave for work, since this craftsman can do such things in the house that you are unlikely to praise him.
From such a friend from South America most often the furniture suffers; like a cat, he tries to sharpen his claws on its upholstery, and he has quite large ones, so it is better that his walks around the apartment are carried out under someone’s careful supervision. In addition, by its nature, the anteater is a creature in no way deprived of intelligence, in this regard, it really loves to stick its long, curious little face into all the corners into which it crawls and not so much, in which case it also has paws.
If such an unpleasant situation has happened and this pretty tenant has already managed to do his own thing in the house, do not rush to scold him or, moreover, to educate him, using force. Firstly, you will scare him, and this can have quite a negative impact on your future relationships, because the animal may begin to perceive you no longer as a friend. Well, the second reason why you shouldn’t “attack” him is that although he is kind, he’s still wild animal. He himself will never start hunting you, but he is not used to giving himself offense, so you can easily get hit with a heavy, muscular paw, which is also armed with a long, sharp claw.
It’s not a problem to take such a pet for walks in the yard on a leash; it just needs to be accustomed to these devices. early childhood. For example, Salvador Dali kept such an unusual friend and walked around the city with him every day in search of inspiration.
This eccentric loves to be given attention, you can play with him, dress him, comb him, he will not run away or kick. The anteater will just calmly settle down, be happy and have fun.
At home, it is not necessary to catch tens of thousands of ants for him; he will be quite happy with such a treat as porridge with minced meat, preferably rice; you can also give him various fruits and eggs. Just don't forget that he doesn't have teeth - you'll have to grind your lunch thoroughly. But during a walk, you can calmly lead him to anthills, believe me, he will not get confused and will get to work, his instincts will take over in any case.
Since this exotic comes from warm countries, it must not be allowed to freeze, so fashionable clothes for an anteater are not only fun and beautiful, but also to some extent necessary. Also, during sleep, it should be covered with something warm.
The average cost of such an extraordinary pet ranges from 500,000 to 2,500,000 rubles.
- The giant anteater is rare species, which is listed in the International Red Book.
- The anteater's tongue works with amazing speed during feeding. The animal throws it out and pulls it back in up to 160 times per minute. Thanks to this speed, an adult anteater eats up to 30,000 ants per day!
- The length of the giant anteater's tongue reaches 61 cm, which is a record for any land animal.
- A typical voracious anteater can eat up to 30 thousand ants or termites in a day.
- Anteaters are not herd animals; they prefer to lead a solitary lifestyle, at most a family one. However, when in captivity they can play well with each other.
- Anteaters have a peaceful nature, which makes them amenable to domestication; they can get along well with more common pets: cats and dogs, and even love to play with children. True, keeping an anteater at home is not so easy, because they cannot stand the cold at all; the favorable temperature for them should be no lower than 24-26 C.
- Anteaters, among other things, are good swimmers and can easily swim across tropical bodies of water.
Video
Sources
- https://o-prirode.ru/bolshoj-muraved/
The places where the anteater lives are well known to all fans of this animal. It belongs to the genus of non-edentate mammals.
Such different anteaters
You can find out where the anteater lives by reading this article. It is worth immediately noting that there is a wide variety of these animals in the world. From dwarf anteaters, whose weight is less than half a kilogram and body length of only 15 centimeters, to the giant anteater. This is how he grows up more than a meter in length, and weighs about three tens of kilograms.
Traditionally, as with most mammals, males are noticeably larger than females. Their main distinctive feature- a long and tube-shaped muzzle, which ends in a small oral slit, very narrow. At the same time, the ears are very small, and the eyes are simply tiny.
The tail of different anteaters is different. For example, the pygmy anteater or tamandua has a naked tail with a grasping reflex. Anteaters are also distinguished by a worm-like tongue. It is quite long, for them it is a kind of hunting organ. The anteater wets it with sticky saliva. The giant anteater's tongue can be up to 60 centimeters long. According to this indicator, they are leaders among all land animals on the planet.
The body of this animal is usually covered with thick hair. The hairs are soft and short in small individuals, coarse and long in major representatives of this family. The color is as contrasting as possible. It can be gray, or maybe golden brown. Most four-toed anteaters are characterized by dark stripes, or extensive black spot through the entire body.
Only at first glance their skull looks fragile, but in reality the bones are very strong and thick. Anteaters are very similar to armadillos and sloths. The fundamental difference is that they have no teeth at all.
Distribution area
Representatives of this family filled several continents at once. Where the anteater lives, it is predominantly warm and humid. This is often a zone tropical forests. This is exactly how you can answer the question, where does the anteater live, in what natural zone?
You can meet these amazing and cute animals all over from Mexico to Central America. And also in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Where the anteater lives, in what zone, you will learn from this article. To be precise, these are wet rainforests, as well as grassy savanna.
Most often, when finding out where the anteater lives, the photo of which is in this article, researchers note that these are forests in the tropics. But you can often find him on open spaces. For example, on the banks of rivers in savannas.
Now you know where the anteater lives, on what continent. Animals lead a terrestrial lifestyle, although this mainly applies to the giant anteater. Arboreal lifestyle in pygmy anteaters. But one of the most common species of four-toed anteaters leads a combined life - both in trees and on the ground.
Diet
The period of their activity falls on dark time days. It begins as soon as twilight falls on the earth and continues throughout the night. The diet of the anteater cannot be called very varied. Mostly these are termites or ants. The heroes of our article destroy their buildings with the help of their powerful front paws. After this, they begin to collect insects with their long and sticky tongue.
Occasionally they feast on bees or beetle larvae. Anteaters kept in the zoo allow themselves a more varied menu. For example, they eat fruit. Let us remember that they do not have teeth, so one of the sections of the stomach is equipped with powerful muscles to grind all the food entering the body. Similar structure internal organs observed in birds. This is how they manage to grind food. This process is enhanced by small pebbles or sand, which anteaters often accidentally swallow.
Sense organs
Anteaters have an excellent sense of smell. At the same time, vision and hearing are very weak. They are protected from predators by powerful claws. At the same time, they lead a predominantly solitary lifestyle. Only females with cubs can be found in pairs. Anteaters breed once a year. The female gives birth to one child, who lives on her back for the entire period of infancy.
It is interesting that anteaters appeared on Earth quite a long time ago. Their fossil remains are most often found in South America. From approximately the Early Miocene period, which began 23 million years ago. Most scientists are convinced that anteaters are even older. True, in Lately their numbers have decreased noticeably. But they are not included in almost any Red Books.
Four-toed anteater
In order to get to know these animals better, let's focus on one of the most common representatives - the four-toed anteater. This is a funny and very attractive animal.
The body of this particular anteater measures from 55 to 90 centimeters in length. And this is not counting the tail, which reaches up to half a meter in length. total weight The body of some individuals reaches five kilograms.
This species of anteater is also called the Mexican tamandua; from the name it becomes clear where the anteater lives. It has a curved and elongated muzzle, and its mouth is very small in diameter. It is only sufficient to pass the tongue, the length of which, given such body parameters, is truly impressive. The tamandua's tongue is about 40 centimeters.
Like all four-toed anteaters, the tamandua has a prehensile tail, in some representatives it is completely naked, in others it is naked only below. He himself irregular shape covered with marks different sizes. Tamandua's eyes are very weak, they see extremely poorly. Wherein big ears, which almost always stand upright, indicate that this organ plays a big role in their life. Most They receive information about the world around them through hearing. On their front paws you can see four toes with claws on each, and on their hind paws there are five claws.
The fur of this anteater is thick and hard, often very bristling. To protect themselves from predators and other enemies, Mexican tamanduas can emit a strong, unpleasant odor from their anal gland. This happens when they sense impending danger. For this feature they were even nicknamed forest stinkers.
Where does the tamandua anteater live?
This particular anteater lives in the forests of the South American continent. It can be found from Trinidad to Venezuela itself. It lives in northern Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. Specifically, Mexican tamanduas are found in Central America. They can be found and photographed even in southeastern Mexico. Natural area Where anteaters live is the tropics and savannas.
Most often they prefer forest edges, and at a fairly low altitude - up to two thousand meters above sea level. They like to live near small bodies of water, as well as near trees - epiphytes and vines.
Lifestyle
Like other anteaters, four-toed anteaters are awake at night. IN daytime They spend days in hollows or burrows. But Mexican tamanduas can be found both day and night. They are able to stay awake up to eight hours a day.
They often eat without even leaving the trees. They walk little, slowly and clumsily on the ground. In this they are very different from giant anteaters, which are capable of very high speeds.
The way they move is interesting. To avoid injuring the sensitive feet when walking, they move on the outer ribs of the feet. And the clawed front paws are used for self-defense. If they happen to fight an enemy in a tree, they tightly grasp the branch with both paws. When they find themselves on the ground, they lean against some support. For example, to a tree trunk or rock. They also have a very funny defensive tactic - to fall on their backs and fight back with all four legs. Their main detractors are big snakes, eagles and jaguars.
How long do anteaters live?
Scientists managed to record the maximum lifespan of anteaters, nine and a half years. Females become sexually mature by the end of the first year of life. Pregnancy lasts from four and a half to five months. The only cub is born in the spring.
Anteaters feed on termites and ants. They detect them by smell. At the same time, those species that emit caustic and dangerous substances are determined in advance. chemical substances, and they are not eaten. They love bees and honey. In captivity they even agree to eat meat.
The importance of anteaters for humans
Surprisingly, the Amazonian aborigines have four-toed anteaters at home. They are kept to fight termites and ants that enter the home.
There is also value in their tail veins. They make strong ropes.
Giant Anteater exotic species and some special, exquisite grace can only be compared with an aristocratic greyhound. Maybe that’s why people who are prone to originality and exclusivity have a need to tame this creature, place it in their home, and even take it for a walk, like a pet dog, to everyone’s envy and surprise.
One such original was Salvador Dali in his time. That is, he himself is a generally recognized super-original and shocking figure number one, but even against this background, the 65-year-old surrealist’s tender affection for a giant anteater seemed to his contemporaries a strange phenomenon, to put it mildly.
Dali walked his exotic friend on a golden leash through the streets of Paris, and appeared at social functions holding him on his shoulder. They say that he developed a love for anteaters after he read Andre Breton’s poem “After the Giant Anteater.” Magazine Paris Match In 1969, he posted a photo of the artist leaving the subway onto the street - a cane in one hand, a shaggy, fantastic-looking animal in the other on a leash. He himself commented on his image: “Salvador Dali emerges from the depths of the subconscious with a romantic anteater on a leash.”
So what kind of animal is this?
Anteaters - unusual animals with a rather strange appearance, significantly inferior in popularity to other animal species. There are only four species of anteaters: giant, four-toed, tamandua and dwarf, all of them are united in the family Anteater in the order Inferior. Accordingly, the only relatives of anteaters are armadillos and sloths, although outwardly these animals are completely different from each other.
The sizes of anteaters vary over a very wide range. Thus, the largest giant anteater is simply huge, its body length can reach 2 m, of which almost half is the tail, it weighs 30-35 kg. The tiniest dwarf anteater has a body length of only 16-20 cm and weighs about 400 g. Tamandua and four-toed anteater have a body length of 54-58 cm and weigh 3-5 kg.
The head of anteaters is relatively small, but the muzzle is very elongated, so its length can reach 20-30% of the body length. The muzzle of anteaters is very narrow, and the jaws are fused together so that the anteater practically cannot open its mouth. Essentially, the anteater's face resembles a pipe, at the end of which there are nostrils and a tiny mouth opening. On top of that, anteaters are completely devoid of teeth, but the long tongue stretches the entire length of the muzzle, and the muscles with which it is attached are unprecedentedly powerful - the muscles that control the tongue are attached to the sternum! The giant anteater's tongue is 60 cm long and is considered the longest of all land animals.
A cousin of sloths and armadillos, the giant anteater, like them, is not burdened even with animal intelligence, but is more active and less lazy than sloths living in semi-hibernation. According to the biological classification, all three belong to the order of edentates and three-toeds. But here's the problem: the anteater has no teeth at all - it has no use for them, otherwise nature would have to invent a toothpick to pick out ants stuck between its teeth. And the toes are padded: he has four of them on his front paws, and five on his hind paws. It is not clear who is deceiving whom, the scientists - us, or the anteater - the scientists.
The giant anteater's homeland and its only habitat for the last millions of years is the scrub savannah and sparse forests of South America, from the Gran Chaco in Argentina to Costa Rica in Central America. Unlike his fellow species, he is an exclusively pedestrian creature, does not climb trees and sleeps on the ground, in a secluded place, hiding long muzzle in the front paws and hiding behind his gorgeous tail like a blanket.
He is a peaceful animal, he will not offend anyone except insects, he scours forests and meadows day and night in search of anthills and termite mounds. He lives anywhere, sleeps anywhere, waddles around, slowly. Try walking differently, leaning on the backs of your hands. Nature has endowed him with such powerful and long claws that they are only a hindrance when walking. So the poor fellow has to bend them. But what a powerful tool it is for penetrating very strong termite mounds!
But don’t think that this beast can’t stand up for itself at all if its calluses are stepped on. To get rid of the pursuer, he will first speed up his pace, going to a trot. (A person, of course, can catch up with him and kill him just by hitting him on the head with a stick.) And if he sees that he cannot get away, he will sit on his hind legs and, like a boxer, put his front legs forward menacingly, spreading his powerful claws. The only sound that can be achieved from him by bothering him greatly is a dull growl. A blow from a paw with 10-centimeter claws can seriously hurt you. But if this does not stop the attacker, the anteater enters into combat with him. a fight to the death. There are cases when such fights ended disastrously for a person.
A white plantation manager in Paraguay encountered an anteater and decided to kill it. Having chased the fleeing animal, he stabbed it with a long garden knife. The anteater stopped, turned around and grabbed him with his strong front paws, depriving him of the opportunity not only to attack, but also to resist. In vain attempts to free himself from the iron embrace, the man knocked the beast down, and they rolled on the ground in a single ball for a long time, until people came running to his desperate cries. Only then did the anteater release the offender and go into the forest. The mutilated and bleeding manager was taken to the hospital, where he remained for several months.
And recently at the Argentine zoo Florencio Varela, not far from Buenos Aires, 19-year-old researcher Melisa Casco, working on a program to preserve giant anteaters from extinction, apparently forgetting about vigilance, got too close to a specimen kept in an enclosure. Since there are not enough brains in the anteater’s skull, he did not recognize the good intentions of the young scientist - apparently it worked genetic memory that man is his worst enemy. And he took her into his deadly embrace. The girl was taken to hospital with severe injuries to her leg and abdomen. Her leg was supposed to be amputated, but Melisa died.
Apart from the two-legged enemy, the only dangers for the giant anteater are the puma and the jaguar. But they, as a rule, prefer not to mess with him, fearing his terrible claws.
This creature weighs 40 kilograms, with a body length of up to 130 cm. Let’s add here almost a meter for a chic fluffy tail and a tongue that protrudes up to half a meter. His hair, like himself, is very peculiar - hard, elastic, thick and uneven in length. On the muzzle it tapers off, and towards the body its length increases, forming an impressive withers-mane along the ridge and frills on the paws. The tail fluffs from top to bottom, like a fan or a flag, the 60-centimeter hair on it hangs to the ground. The most characteristic color of the giant anteater is silver-gray (sometimes cocoa-colored), with a wide black stripe running diagonally across the entire body - from the chest to the sacrum. The lower part of the head, underbelly and tail are colored black-brown. 
Everything in this body amazing creature adapted for obtaining, grinding and digesting entire hordes of insects. The anteater will punch a hole in the termite mound with its paw, stick its long narrow muzzle inside, like a trunk or a hose, and get to work. No matter how long his muzzle is, his tongue is even longer - narrow, nimble, muscular, like a snake. Its base is attached right behind the sternum - a considerable distance, considering that the anteater’s neck is not short. In general, it will be half the length of the body, longer than that of an elephant and a giraffe (and the giraffe also does not complain about its tongue).
Having penetrated with its snout into the lair of termites or ants disturbed by its invasion, it uses its tongue, shooting it at a speed of 160 times per minute. And every time the tongue is retracted, the salivary glands abundantly moisten it with very sticky saliva, so that insects immediately stick to it. In one meal, an anteater can send up to 35 thousand termites into its stomach.
In order for the batch stuck to the tongue to remain in the mouth, on the inner surface of the cheeks and palate there are sort of brushes made of horny bristles, scraping off the catch and freeing the tongue to grab the next one. At the same time, the anteater’s mouth is very tiny, intended only for throwing out its tongue.
If he does not come across an anthill or termite mound on his way, he may well satisfy his hunger ordinary insects, including worms and larvae. Small forest berries will also suit him, which he can eat without using the services of a whip-like tongue, but, like all normal animals, carefully tearing them off the branch with his lips.
The male anteater is not burdened by nature with paternal responsibility to his offspring - he did his job and went on to wander. But the female, it seems, has been concerned only with motherhood throughout her difficult life.
Having carried the baby (always the only one) in her womb, she then carries him on her back for months. The baby, as soon as it is born, climbs onto its mother. He remains weak and helpless for a long time - almost up to two years, therefore, even after stopping feeding him, the anteater helps him get adult food by breaking open termite mounds. And while she is busy nursing the baby, the time comes new pregnancy, and everything repeats again... and again.
The anteater's brains were in a narrow, pipe-like skull, and the cat cried. So you can’t expect miracles of training from him. Even Vladimir Durov did not count on this. He only used the natural habits of the animal, preparing it for a circus act. Natural, natural, and the result was impressive. Forcing the anteater to rise on its hind legs and using its grasping-hugging reflex, he placed a gun in its clawed paws. In Durov's circus show, an anteater guarded the entrance to the fortress and fired a gun, and even, harnessed to a carriage, rolled a monkey around the arena.
A forest tramp has enough brains to become, within the walls of a city apartment, a sweet, pampered lazy person who likes to sleep in his master’s bed, hang upside down on a closet or door lintel, allow himself to be fed treats, cuddled, caressed, walked, and even allowed to be groomed. yourself in children's clothes - caps, vests, sweaters, jeans. What else does a loving housewife or owner need to dote on their pet?
All species of anteaters are low-fertile by nature and are very dependent on specific food sources, so these animals have difficulty restoring their numbers in places where they are exterminated. Local residents have always hunted these animals for meat, so the giant anteater is already listed in the Red Book as endangered. However, the greatest danger to them is not hunters, but the destruction of natural habitats. Anteaters are also not often seen in zoos, perhaps due to the low public interest in the little-known animal. At the same time, keeping these animals in captivity turned out to be surprisingly easy. Gourmet anteaters in captivity easily switch to food that is unusual for them - they happily eat not only insects, but also minced meat, berries, fruits, and especially love... milk.
In addition, it is not at all necessary for them to plant termite mounds and anthills in the house or garden. This original, peaceful and generally docile animal, without problems or complaints, caressed by sweet captivity, easily switches to the human diet - berries, fruits, meat, boiled eggs. The main thing is to serve them to him in crushed form: after all, an anteater’s mouth is no wider than the neck of a bottle.
A person would pray for an anteater - not a tame one, of course, but a wild one - to protect it, create favorable conditions for its reproduction and survival, because nature probably couldn’t come up with a more useful creature. But instead, he is mercilessly and thoughtlessly exterminated. As soon as homo sapiens a hand rises to kill such a treasure when termites have become a real scourge of both American continents, and methods of combating them have not yet been found!
Alas, the number of giant anteaters in South America, listed in the International Red Book, continues to decline catastrophically, and they can be seen in the wild less and less often...
The eyes and ears of anteaters are small, the neck middle length, but it seems shorter because it is not very flexible. The paws are strong and end in powerful claws. Only these claws, long and curved like hooks, remind us of the relationship of anteaters with sloths and armadillos. The tail of anteaters is long, and in the giant anteater it is not at all flexible and is directed all the time parallel to the surface of the earth, but in other species it is muscular and tenacious, with its help the anteaters move through the trees. Wool tree species the anteater's is short, while the giant anteater's is long and very tough. The hair on the tail is especially long, which gives the giant anteater's tail a broom-like appearance. The color of the giant anteater is brown, the front legs are lighter in color (sometimes almost white), and a black stripe stretches from the chest to the back. The remaining species of anteaters are colored in contrasting yellowish-brown and white tones; the color of the tamandua looks especially bright.
Anteaters, like other representatives of the order Incomplete-toothed, live exclusively in America. Most large range in the giant and dwarf anteaters, they live in Central and most of South America. Tamandua lives only in central South America - Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Most northern view- a four-toed anteater whose range extends from Venezuela north to Mexico inclusive. The giant anteater inhabits grassy plains (pampas), and other species are closely associated with trees, and therefore live in rare forests. The rhythm of life of these animals is unhurried. Most of the time they walk on the ground in search of food, simultaneously turning over stones, snags, and stumps along the way. Because of their long claws, anteaters cannot rest on the entire plane of their paws, so they place them slightly obliquely, and sometimes rest on the back of the hand. All types of anteaters (except the giant one) easily climb trees, clinging with clawed paws and holding on with a tenacious tail. In the crowns they examine the bark in search of insects.
These animals are more active at night. Anteaters go to sleep, curled up and covering themselves with their tails, and small species try to choose more secluded places, and a giant anteater can fall asleep without embarrassment in the middle of a bare plain - this giant has no one to fear. In general, anteaters are not very smart (the intelligence of all edentates is poorly developed), but nevertheless, in captivity they like to play with each other, starting clumsy fights. In nature, anteaters live alone and rarely meet each other.
Anteaters feed exclusively on insects and not all of them, but only the smallest species - ants and termites. This selectivity is due to the lack of teeth: since the anteater cannot chew food, it swallows insects whole, and in the stomach they are digested by very aggressive gastric juice. In order for food to be digested faster, it must be small enough, so anteaters do not eat large insects. However, the anteater makes the work of its stomach easier by partially grinding or crushing insects against the hard palate at the moment of swallowing. Since anteaters' food is small, they are forced to absorb it in large quantities, so they are in a constant search. Anteaters move like living vacuum cleaners, tilting their heads to the ground and continuously sniffing out and drawing everything edible into their mouths (their sense of smell is very acute). Possessing disproportionately great strength, they noisily overturn snags, and if they encounter a termite mound on their way, they cause real destruction in it. With powerful claws, anteaters destroy the termite mound and quickly lick termites from the surface. During the feast, the anteater's tongue moves at tremendous speed (up to 160 times per minute!), which is why it has such powerful muscles. Insects stick to the tongue thanks to sticky saliva; the salivary glands also reach enormous sizes and are attached to the sternum, like the tongue. 
Mating in giant anteaters occurs twice a year - in spring and autumn, other species mate more often in autumn. Since anteaters live alone, there is rarely more than one male near one female, therefore these animals do not have mating rituals. The male finds the female by smell; anteaters are silent and do not give special calling signals. Pregnancy lasts from 3-4 (for the dwarf) to 6 months (for the giant anteater). The female, standing, gives birth to one calf, rather small and naked, which independently climbs onto her back. From that moment on, she carries it on herself all the time, and the cub tenaciously clings to her back with its clawed paws. In the giant anteater, the small cub is generally difficult to detect, because it is buried in the mother’s coarse fur. Tamandua females often, while feeding on a tree, place the baby on some branch; after completing all her business, the mother takes the baby and goes down. Anteater cubs spend a long time with their mother: for the first month they remain on her back inseparably, then they begin to descend to the ground, but remain associated with the female for up to two years! It is not uncommon to see a female anteater carrying a “baby” almost equal in size to her on her back. Different species reach sexual maturity at 1-2 years. Giant anteaters live up to 15 years, tamanduas - up to 9.
In nature, anteaters have few enemies. Only jaguars generally dare to attack large giant anteaters, but this animal has a weapon against predators - claws up to 10 cm long. In case of danger, the anteater falls on its back and begins to clumsily swing all four paws. The external absurdity of this behavior is deceptive; the anteater can cause severe wounds. Small species are more vulnerable; in addition to jaguars, large boas and eagles can attack them, but these animals also defend themselves with the help of their claws. In addition to turning over on their back, they can sit on their tail and fight off with their paws, and the pygmy anteater does the same thing while hanging on its tail from a tree branch. And tamandua also uses an unpleasant odor as an additional protection, for which local residents even nicknamed it “forest stink.”
sources
http://www.chayka.org/node/2718
http://www.animalsglobe.ru/muravyedi/
http://zoo-flo.com/view_post.php?id=344
http://www.animals-wild.ru/mlekopitayushhie-zhivotnye/259-gigantskij-muraved.html
It is difficult to imagine a more unusual representative of the animal world. Some consider the giant anteater (lat. Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is an extremely ugly creature, others find particular attraction in the exotic contours of its physique, and individuals who claim originality gladly tame these animals and keep them at home instead of the usual cats and dogs.
Among the latter is Salvador Dali: this mega-shocking surrealist was tenderly attached to his exotic friend, walked him through the streets of Paris and even took him with him to social events. So what is this animal from the order of incomplete teeth?
However, it would be a stretch to call it incompletely toothed, since the anteater never had any teeth. And the mouth looks so strange that one can hardly call it a full-fledged mouth: it is a hole a couple of centimeters in diameter, from which a narrow, long (60 cm) tongue appears and disappears with lightning speed, the base of which is attached to the animal’s chest.
The voluminous fluffy tail - the real pride of the giant anteater - reaches a length of 90-100 cm. Its body is a little more than a meter long, a third of which is a narrow, elongated cone-shaped head - a kind of hose tapering towards the end with tiny eyes located far from the edge of the muzzle.
flickr/dcmandrill
The anteater's fur is elastic and hard, and the length of the hairline increases towards the tail: the head is almost devoid of vegetation; starting from the neck, the animal looks much more fluffy and reaches the peak of “hairiness” in the tail area, where the length of the fur is about half a meter.
The fur is silver-gray in color, darker in places, and completely black on the sides of the chest. The giant's gait seems somewhat strange - the gait of a person forced to walk on all fours and rely on the outer part of his bent wrists would look approximately the same.
The fact is that some of the claws on each of the 4 fingers of the anteater's front paws grow to unprecedented sizes, and such claws, about 10 cm long, give the owner a lot of trouble when walking. So the animal has to bend its limbs, turning its claws inward. It is clear that with such peculiarities of gait you will not run far - catching up with a giant anteater will not be difficult even for a person, not to mention predators.
Unable to escape, the animal meets the attackers face to face: sitting on its hind legs and extending its front legs with predatorily outstretched formidable claws in front of the enemy. Needless to say, a powerful blow from a paw with 10-centimeter claws will not hurt even.
And when penetrating termite mounds, claws are the anteater’s first weapon. Even the most durable structure of insects is easily destroyed by the invasion of paws with dagger claws. And then the anteater simply deftly wields his long tongue: abundantly moistening it with sticky saliva, he throws it out at a speed of 150 times per minute, filling the stomach with tens of thousands of insects.
The habitats of the giant anteater are limited to sparse forests and shrub savannas of South and Central America. Any hastily dug hole can become a resting place for a narrow-faced animal - according to the principle: where he is tired, he falls asleep. They lie sideways, hide their heads between their front paws, and cover themselves with a voluminous tail. And a keen sense of smell warns of the approaching danger of a sleeping anteater.