Did you know there are four living anteater species? Two of them aren't commonly known as "anteaters" they're more frequently referred to as the northern and southern tamandua. Find out more anteater facts in today's episode of Animal Fact Files! Anteaters get that name because they eat ants. They also eat other insects and invertebrates! Anteaters have long claws that are great for digging up a meal but not so great for holding a baby anteater.

Scientific Name:
Suborder: Vermilingua “worm tongue”
giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)
silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus)
northern tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla)
Range: Southern North America to South America
Habitat: grasslands, forests, swamps
Size: 2 to 6 feet (61cm to 1.8m) long; less than a pound to 60 pounds (450g to 27kg) in weight on average
Diet: ants, termites, grubs, other small insects and invertebrates
Threats: jaguars, mountain lions, harpy eagles, hawks, owls, humans
Life Span: less than 5 years to 25 years in captivity; unknown in the wild

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Anteater SPECIES 0:00
Anteater RANGE 0:39
Anteater HABITAT 0:51
Anteater TONGUE and DIET 1:28
Anteater SIZE 2:17
Anteater LIFE CYCLE 2:42
Anteater THREATS and DEFENSE 3:22
Anteater FEET 3:45
Thanks / Outro 3:58


Image and Video Credits:
Quinten Questel https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
RedGazelle15 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Quartl https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Katja Sculz https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Ppgold1963 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Katja Schulz https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegro... ; https://flickr.com/photos/treegrow/69...
Rusty Clark https://flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark... ; https://flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark...
gailhampshire https://flickr.com/photos/gails_pictu...
Dave Lonsdale https://flickr.com/photos/davelonsdal...
Zoo Knoxville https://vimeo.com/446846937 ; https://vimeo.com/393768073 ; https://vimeo.com/393772055
Dan Sloan https://www.flickr.com/photos/dantouj...
phoekman https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/83...
Daniel Pineda Vera https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/14...
Larissa Vaccarini Avila https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/86...
keesgroenendik https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/30...
diegogeoid https://freesound.org/people/diegogeo...
Chermundy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Py... ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gi... ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:No... ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Co...
diego_cue https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Alexandre https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Howard Cheng https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...


Research Credits:
https://web.archive.org/web/201108281...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anteater
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/...
https://www.uwsp.edu/biology/Vertebra...
https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/...
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/...
https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/...
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/...
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/...
https://www.lamar.edu/artssciences/b...

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