In the world today there are many different types of creatures that eat insects. Many of the animals that feed on insects such as ants do not have anything in common. Creatures such as fish, aardvarks and pangolins feed on ants but only one of these creatures is called an Anteater. There are four different species of Anteaters. The best known is the Giant Anteater. The other three are called the North and South Tamanduas and silky anteaters. Anteaters belong to infraorder Vermilinua of the order Edentata. The word Endentata means without teeth and anteaters are toothless. (Angier, 4)

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The Giant Anteater comes from South America. It is the size of a German Shepard dog. It has hair that is stiff and straw like. On his tail the hair gets as long as 40 cm. (Laurete, 177) Some of the Giant Anteaters grow to be over 6 feet long. (Fetzer, 540) Anteaters spend most of their time trying to find food. They hunt on the ground in the leaves and other places looking for termite and ant hills. Sometimes they even eat things like soft-bodied grubs. They also eat termites. In one day the can eat as many as 30,000 insects. To get the ants or termites the anteater will rip open the termite hill with its clawed hand and put its tube shaped nose into the hole. It then puts its tongue into the middle of the colony of ants and catches the ants with its sticky coated tongue. (Angier, 2) Anteaters that are kept in places like zoos have a different diet. They eat things like fruit, hard-boiled eggs and dog food.

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When Anteaters are looking for prey they must also be careful that they do not become prey to other animals. Large cats like jaguars will hunt and kill anteaters. The biggest threat to anteaters is humans. Many times anteaters are run over by cars. Some humans kill them for their pelts. Humans are the biggest reason for habitat destruction for anteaters. The Giant Anteater is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. (Angier, 1) The wild giant anteater lives in grasslands, deciduous forests and in the rainforests of South and Central America. The places they live in are wet forests and swamps. This is where they can find the ants and termites.

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The anteaters are territorial. There territories are about 1 square mile for adult males and 1.5 square miles for females.(Angier, 1) At night they sleep at the bottom of tree bases or hollow logs. When they can’t find any of these they will scrape out the ground to sleep. Anteaters never sleep in the same place every night. The anteater is a light sleeper and can wake up to protect themselves. Some scientists say that breeding of Giant Anteaters takes place from March until May. The gestational period is six months. (Austerman, 1) Most of the time only one baby is born. When the baby is born it has a full coat of fur. In the first year after it is born the baby rides on its mothers back. When it gets a little bigger it will take short trips away from its mom. The baby lives with its mom until it is fully grown. It takes the anteater two years to grow to an adult.

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Besides the Giant Anteater there are three other types of anteaters. The Silky Anteater is the smallest of all of them. It is about fifteen inches long with most of it's lengh being from it's long tail. The males and females are the same size. This anteater is nocturnal. It can be found high up in the trees eating ants and termites. (Fetzer, 541) The other anteater is called Northern and Southern Tamandua. The Tamandua has a shorter snout than the Giant anteater. They also live in the trees and use there tails to help hold on to the trees. The Northern Tamandua is found in Mexico and Peru. The Southern Tamandua is found only in South America. They live in the tropical forest. Just like the Silky Anteater they are nocturnal. (Fetzer, 541) Insect eaters can be found all over the world.

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Anteaters are the one people know best. It is easy to see why they are called Anteaters because of the amount of ants they can eat in one day.

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Author: James H

Date Published: April 2006

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Works Cited:

Angier, Natalie.. “Anteaters” www.maiaw.com/anteater/inco.html, December 2, 2001 Austerman, Miriam.. “Giant Anteaters” http://www.encarta.msn.com Fetzer, Scott. “Anteater” World Book Encyclopedia. .1998, pp.540-541. Laureate, Nobel. Animal Architecture. New York:Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1974