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Home | Animals | Mammals | Edentata | Giant Anteater
Giant Anteater
Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Superorder: Xenarthra Order: Pilosa Suborder: Vermilingua Family: Myrmecophagidae Genus: Myrmecophaga
Linnaeus, 1758Species: M. tridactyla
Description
The Giant Anteater has a long snout and a large, bushy tail. Its coat is brown with a large black and white stripe on its shoulder. It has small ears and eyes, which contributes to the streamlined appearance of its head. The Giant anteater has a long, thin tongue that it uses to extract ants from their mound. It also has one of the lowest body temperatures of any known mammal
Habitat
The Giant anteater can be found in large parts of southern Central America and the northern and central parts of South America. Populations are densest in the tropical forests, grasslands, and highlands where ants are most abundant.
Diet
Carpenter ants and other large ants are the primary food of Giant anteaters. They usually ignore termites, army ants, and other species with large jaws. Ants are carefully removed from the colony when the anteater inserts its long tongue covered with sticky saliva. The anteater dines on a mound for about one minute before moving on to another mound.
Threats
Giant anteaters are the prey of pumas and jaguars