ANTEATER

any of four species of toothless, insect-eating mammals, family Myrmecophagidae, placed with the armadillos and sloths in the order Edentata. Anteaters are found in tropical savannas and forests from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay. They are densely furred, long-tailed animals, with long skulls and tubular muzzles. The mouth opening is small and the tongue long and wormlike. The salivary glands are large and secrete sticky saliva. Anteaters live alone or in pairs and feed mainly on ants and termites. They obtain their prey by inserting their long, sticky tongues into insect nests torn open by the long, sharp, curved claws of their forefeet. The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), sometimes called ant bear, is the largest of the anteaters. Gray with a diagonal, white-bordered black stripe on each shoulder, it attains a length of about 1.8 m (6 feet), including the long, bushy tail, and weighs up to 25 kg (55 pounds). It is mainly diurnal, but in inhabited areas it is most active at night. It walks with a shuffle, bearing its weight on the knuckles of its forelimbs. When harried, it is capable of a galloping run. Like the other anteaters, it grasps and claws when forced to fight. The female bears a single young after a gestation period of about 190 days. Unlike the giant anteater, the lesser anteater, or tamandua (Tamandua), and the two-toed anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) are arboreal and mainly nocturnal. Members of both genera have prehensile tails, which they use in climbing. Depending on the authority, there are one or two species of lesser anteaters. These animals are often tan with a blackish vest around the shoulders and on the body; some are entirely tan or entirely blackish. Lesser anteaters are about 1.2 m (about 4 feet) long including the tail. They have shorter fur and shorter muzzles than the giant anteater. The two-toed, silky, or dwarf, anteater is the smallest and least-known member of the family. It attains an overall length of about 37 cm (15 inches), about one-half of which is tail. It has a silky, yellowish coat and has two clawed toes on each forefoot (the giant and lesser anteaters have four). Animals that were once grouped with the anteaters include the aardvark; the pangolin, or scaly anteater; the numbat, or banded anteater; and the echidna, or spiny anteater.