Giant Anteater Video Reveals Unusual Mammal
Posted by Jonathan Rossouw
in Americas
Giant Anteater video
On our recent Brazil wildlife adventure, Apex travelers explored the southern Pantanal, the world’s largest floodplain and home to the highest concentration of wildlife in the Americas. Here, we encountered an animal that surely ranks amongst the most bizarre of all mammals—the Giant Anteater. This 90-pound, slender-snouted, shaggy-coated and bushy-tailed insectivore is capable of using its sticky, two-foot-long tongue to munch up to 35,000 ants and termites a day! This Giant Anteater video captures our encounter with this quite odd-looking creature.
Giant Anteater facts
Our travelers were intrigued to learn some interesting facts about this unusual mammal:
- The Giant Anteater is the largest of four species of anteaters living today.
- It is a terrestrial animal whereas the other three species of anteaters are arboreal or semi-arboreal.
- The Giant Anteater has poor eyesight and relies on its sense of smell to find food.
- Its sharp claws are four inches long and are used to rip open anthills to reach their prey.
- These animals have no teeth. They crush insects on their palate before swallowing them.
- It eats quickly, flicking its tongue up to 160 times per minute.
- The Giant Anteater can reach seven feet long from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail.
- The average life span is 14 years. Females have a single offspring once a year.
Exploring Caiman Ecological Refuge
Giant Anteaters range throughout the Neotropics, from southern Mexico southwards to Argentina. They are scarce in true rainforests and totally absent from the central Pantanal, where seasonal flooding precludes the occurrence of their favored food source of ants and termites.
Our expedition took us into the 130,000-acre Caiman Ecological Refuge. The refuge’s transitional location at the southern edge of the Pantanal—where higher ground rich in termitaria (termite’s nests) meets the lakes and marshes of the floodplain—means that it boasts a healthy population of Giant Anteaters. It’s not uncommon to see multiple foraging individuals during an afternoon excursion.
Learn More
Find out more about seeing the wildlife of southern Pantanal and the Caiman Ecological Refuge on our Brazil tours page.
