Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Rainforest and jungle

Giant anteater

Myrmecophaga tridactyla

A two foot tongue without any teeth

An adult probes a termite mound with its front claws, a typical posture when searching for food.
An adult probes a termite mound with its front claws, a typical posture when searching for food.
  • Status: Threatened
  • Grasslands and forests from Honduras to northern Argentina

Numbers

Weight
90 lbfrom 73 to 110 lb in males, from 60 to 104 lb in females; the Wikidata value of 3 pounds corresponds to birth weight, not an adult
Length
80 intotal length, from 72 to 84 in
Lifespan
16 yearsfigure for specimens in captivity; lifespan in the wild is not reported in the source material
Tongue length
2 ftcan reach eighteen inches outside the mouth
Insects in a day
30000 insectsvisiting up to 200 nests
Tongue flicks
160 per minutealmost three times per second

Ten fun facts

  1. does not have a single tooth, crushing insects against its palate and grinding them in a gizzard-like stomach.

  2. produces no gastric acid of its own, relying on the formic acid in the ants it swallows to digest them.

  3. has a scientific name meaning three fingers, even though it actually has five toes on every single foot.

  4. walks on its knuckles, like gorillas and chimpanzees, to avoid wearing down the long claws on its front feet.

  5. has a body temperature of around ninety-one degrees Fahrenheit, several degrees lower than most other mammals.

  6. sleeps wrapped in its bushy tail, using it like a cozy blanket to retain heat and stay hidden from view.

  7. is a capable swimmer that can cross wide rivers, and scientists have even seen it climb up termite mounds.

  8. has a gestation period of about one hundred and ninety days, giving birth standing up to a single three-pound pup.

  9. was found in a 2009 study to have dark chest stripes that serve as warning signals rather than camouflage.

  10. lost about three hundred and forty individuals in the 1994 wildfires at Emas National Park in Brazil.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

How many teeth does a giant anteater have?

Question 2 of 5

How long is its tongue?

Question 3 of 5

How many nests can it visit in a single day?

Question 4 of 5

Why does it walk on its knuckles?

Question 5 of 5

How does the IUCN classify it?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Clap your hands three times in one second to match the speed at which this animal flickers its tongue while eating.

Experiment 2

Unroll a tape measure to two feet on the floor to see the length of an adult tongue, then measure yours.

Experiment 3

Try walking on your knuckles for a few steps with your fingers curled in, which is how this creature protects its sharp claws.

Data from Wikidata (Q203033) and Wikipedia (Giant anteater).