Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla): Facts and Diet

What does a giant anteater look like?

Few animals are as easy to recognize. The head is long and narrow, and most of it is snout, with a tiny mouth at the tip, small eyes and small rounded ears. The neck is thick and blends into the body, and a short mane runs along the back.

The coarse fur is mostly grayish brown. A bold black band with thin white edges runs diagonally from the throat over each shoulder, ending in a point near the middle of the back. The front legs are pale, almost white, with a black band near the wrist, while the back legs are darker. The tail is covered in long, stiff hair and looks much bigger than it really is.

Some researchers once thought the shoulder stripe worked as camouflage, breaking up the animal’s outline. A 2009 study suggested it may instead be warning coloration, a signal to predators that this animal is well armed. The question is not fully settled.

The front feet have five toes, three of them with long claws; the middle claw is the largest and can be around 10 cm (4 in) long. To protect those claws, the anteater walks on its knuckles with the claws folded inward, giving it a slow, shuffling gait. The hind feet are flat with five short claws.

How big is a giant anteater?

The giant anteater is the largest member of its group, roughly the length of a tall person when you include the tail.

Males are usually larger and heavier than females, although the difference is hard to see from a distance. The head alone is about 30 cm (12 in) long.

Habitat and range

Giant anteaters live from Honduras south through Central America and across much of South America east of the Andes, as far as Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina. They were once more widespread and are now thought to be gone from Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize, as well as from large areas of southern Brazil and Argentina.

They are adaptable and can be found in open savanna and grassland, flooded wetlands such as the Pantanal, dry scrub, open woodland and tropical rainforest. The key needs are plenty of ant and termite colonies and patches of cover. In the Brazilian Pantanal, studies found that giant anteaters tend to forage in open country and rest in forest, which gives shade on hot days and shelter on cold ones.

The best places to see them in the wild today include the Pantanal and Cerrado of Brazil, where they are often spotted walking across grassland in the early morning or late afternoon.

What do giant anteaters eat?

The giant anteater is an insectivore that specializes in ants and termites, a diet called myrmecophagy. It also takes their eggs, larvae and pupae, and sometimes beetle larvae or other soft grubs. Which insect dominates depends on the place and season: in flooded areas ants are more common, while in some grasslands termites make up most of the diet.

An anteater finds colonies by smell. Its sense of smell is often said to be about 40 times stronger than ours. It rips open a mound or nest with its front claws, pushes in its snout and flicks its tongue in and out around 150–160 times a minute, collecting insects on sticky saliva and backward-pointing spines.

Each nest is visited only briefly, often for about a minute, before stinging soldiers or chemical defenses drive the anteater away. Wild anteaters may raid up to about 200 nests a day and eat an estimated 30,000–35,000 insects. Because they rarely destroy a colony, they can return to the same nest later. You can read the full feeding process in how do anteaters eat ants?.

Giant anteaters get much of their water from food, but they also drink and may dig for water during droughts, opening small waterholes that other animals use.

Behavior and daily life

Giant anteaters are mostly solitary. Adults live in home ranges that vary hugely, from under 3 km² (about 1 sq mi) in some Brazilian parks to more than 30 km² (12 sq mi) in parts of Argentina. Ranges overlap, and neighbors usually ignore or avoid each other. Males are less tolerant than females and may circle, chase and wrestle rivals, bellowing and slashing with their claws.

Activity depends on temperature and people. In warm weather or near human settlements, giant anteaters are often active at night, while on cool days they forage in daylight. They rest in a shallow scrape in the ground or in dense grass and brush, curled up with the bushy tail spread over the body like a blanket.

Their body temperature, about 33 °C (91 °F), is low for a mammal, and their metabolism is slow, which suits a diet of tiny insects. They usually walk slowly but can break into a clumsy gallop. They are good swimmers and have been seen crossing wide rivers. They can also climb termite mounds and occasionally trees.

Most communication is by scent, from glands near the tail and marks on trees. Young anteaters whistle to their mothers, and adults snort, hiss and roar during fights.

Reproduction and baby anteaters

Giant anteaters can breed at any time of year, although some regions show seasonal peaks. After a pregnancy of about 170–190 days, the female gives birth standing up to a single pup weighing about 1–2 kg (2.2–4.4 lb). The pup is born with a full coat and adult-like markings.

Within a short time, the pup climbs onto its mother’s back, where it rides for much of its first months. Its black-and-white stripe lines up with the mother’s stripe, so the pair is harder to pick out. The mother grooms and nurses the pup, and it gradually starts eating insects.

The young anteater usually becomes independent at around 9–10 months, although some stay with their mother for up to about two years, or until she is pregnant again. Giant anteaters reach breeding age at about 2.5–4 years.

How long do giant anteaters live?

Lifespan in the wild is poorly known; a commonly quoted estimate is about 15 years. In zoos, giant anteaters have lived to around 26 years. Many wild anteaters die much earlier because of fires, road traffic, dog attacks and hunting.

Predators and threats

Adults have only two important natural predators: the jaguar and the cougar, also called the puma. Both are large enough to tackle an adult, but they do so with care. A cornered anteater rears up on its hind legs, uses its tail as a prop and strikes with its front claws, which can wound even a big cat. The full story of how that defense affects people is in are giant anteaters dangerous?.

The serious threats are human-caused:

• Habitat loss: savannas and forests, especially in Brazil’s Cerrado, are being turned into farmland and plantations.
• Fire: the long, dry coat catches fire easily and anteaters move slowly. In 1994, about 340 giant anteaters died in a single wildfire in Emas National Park, Brazil.
• Roads: giant anteaters are among the mammals most often killed by vehicles in central Brazil.
• Dogs and hunting: they are attacked by domestic dogs and hunted for meat, hides, claws or out of fear.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classes the giant anteater as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population. It is listed on CITES Appendix II, which controls international trade. The species still has a very large range and survives in many protected areas, including parts of the Amazon, the Pantanal and the Cerrado, but it has disappeared from several countries and many local areas.

Conservation work includes wildlife crossings and speed limits on busy roads, fire management in grasslands, rescue and release of orphaned pups, and long-term monitoring projects in Brazil and Argentina. In the Iberá wetlands of northeastern Argentina, giant anteaters have been reintroduced to areas where they had been wiped out.

Myths and facts

• Myth: anteaters suck up ants like a vacuum cleaner. Fact: they use a fast-moving, sticky tongue, not suction.
• Myth: all anteaters are giant anteaters. Fact: there are several anteater species. The others, the tamanduas and the tiny silky anteaters, spend much of their time in trees.
• Myth: anteaters are related to aardvarks and pangolins. Fact: the resemblance is convergent evolution. The aardvark of Africa belongs to a completely different group of mammals.
• Old myth: there were no male anteaters. In the colonial period some Europeans believed only females existed and that they reproduced through their noses. The Spanish naturalist Félix de Azara corrected this in the late 1700s.

Relationship with people

In Amazonian folklore, the anteater appears as a trickster and comic figure, thanks to its odd shape. Today it is one of the best-known symbols of Brazilian wildlife, where it is called tamanduá-bandeira, “flag anteater”, after its tail.

Giant anteaters are popular in zoos in Europe and North America, and coordinated breeding programs help keep healthy captive populations. In the wild, the main thing people can do is give them space: watch from a vehicle or at a distance, never corner one, and drive slowly through anteater country, especially at dawn and dusk.