Giant Anteater Profile, Facts, Information
Giant Anteater Profile, Facts, Information
Photograph by Nicole Duplaix
NationalGeographic.com
Giant Anteater Profile
Anteaters are edentate animals—they have no teeth. But their long tongues are more than sufficient to lap up the 35,000 ants and termites they swallow whole each day.
The anteater uses its sharp claws to tear an opening into an anthill and put its long snout and efficient tongue to work. But it has to eat quickly, flicking its tongue up to 160 times per minute. Ants fight back with painful stings, so an anteater may spend only a minute feasting on each mound. Anteaters never destroy a nest, preferring to return and feed again in the future.
These animals find their quarry not by sight—theirs is poor—but by smell.
Anteaters are found in Central and South America, where they prefer tropical forests and grasslands. There are four different species which vary greatly in size.
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