A domestic anteater, a kind and quiet pet. Giant anteater: habitat, interesting facts, photos
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The anteater is an animal of the family of mammals of the order edentates. Anteaters live in South America. There are three types of anteaters: four-toed anteaters, tamanduas and giant anteaters. Body length 120 - 200 cm, height 120 cm, tail 90 cm. Weight 25 - 30 kg, sometimes 40 kg. Four-toed anteater and tamandua: body length 50 – 60 cm, weight 3 – 5 kg. Dwarf anteater: body length 15 – 20 cm, weight 400 g. The head is small, the muzzle is long, tube-shaped, the eyes and ears are small. The mouth is small, the tongue is very long and sticky. The paws are large and strong with powerful sharp claws, the front paws have 5 toes, and the hind paws have 4 toes. The front claws are 10–15 cm long, the hind claws are smaller, and on the front paws the third toe is the longest. The tail is long and prehensile. The fur is gray or brown, with a black transverse stripe on the side of the front of the body.
Anteaters are calm animals; they do not attack people or other animals unless they are in danger. Anteaters feed mainly on ants and termites, sometimes on wasps, bees and other insects, and sometimes they eat berries. The anteater destroys anthills with its paws, extends its long sticky tongue and sticks it into the gap, then retracts the tongue with the ants glued back. The anteater's tongue moves very quickly, retracting and extending it up to 160 times per minute. An anteater eats up to 30,000 ants and termites per day. Anteaters have the most long tongue Of all land animals, it reaches a length of 60 cm.
Anteaters have no teeth, they have a muscular and hard stomach, sometimes they swallow small pebbles and sand to grind food. The anteater's enemies are jaguars and pumas, large anteaters cannot run quickly from enemies, the anteater defends itself with powerful front claws, with which they can inflict dangerous wounds. Small anteaters climb trees well; they feed on tree ants. Anteaters lead a solitary lifestyle and rarely meet each other.
Anteaters breed twice a year in spring and autumn.
Pregnancy in females lasts 6 months. Only one cub weighing 1.5 kg is always born, the cub feeds on milk for several months, then it can feed on insects. After birth, the cub climbs onto the mother’s back and spends a lot of time with the mother; after a month, he begins to walk on his own and follow his mother. The cub on the mother’s back is almost invisible; their fur is shimmering. Anteaters have an excellent sense of smell, but poor vision and hearing. Anteaters are calm, peaceful animals; they do not attack people. The anteater moves, bending its claws into the palm, and advances with the outer part of the palm. In nature, anteaters live 15 years, in captivity up to 25 years.
Anteaters are perhaps one of the most amazing mammals on our planet, thanks to their more than unusual appearance, they have gained wide fame among lovers of exotic animals. And the first person who had his own pet anteater was the great and eccentric artist Salvador Dali; it is quite possible that the appearance of this animal inspired him to paint his unusual paintings. As for anteaters, they belong to the order of edentates, their distant relatives are armadillos and (although they are not at all similar in appearance), there are three species of anteaters themselves, in natural conditions they live exclusively on the American continent, but read more about all this further.
Anteater - description, structure. What does an anteater look like?
The sizes of anteaters vary depending on the species, so the largest giant anteater reaches two meters in length, and what is interesting is that half of its size is in the tail. Its weight is approximately 30-35 kg.
The smallest pygmy anteater It is only 16-20 cm in length and weighs no more than 400 grams.
The anteater's head is small, but very elongated, and its length can be 30% of the length of its body. The anteater's jaws are practically fused together, so it is impossible for him to open his mouth wide, however, he does not need to do this. Like having teeth. Yes, anteaters literally have no teeth at all, but the lack of teeth is more than compensated for by the anteater’s long and muscular tongue, which stretches along the entire length of their muzzle and is a real source of pride for this animal. The length of the giant anteater's tongue reaches 60 cm, this is the longest tongue among all living creatures living on Earth.
The eyes and ears of anteaters are not large, but their paws are strong, muscular, and also armed with long and curved claws. These very claws are their only detail appearance, which recalls their relationship with sloths and armadillos. Anteaters also have a well-developed charm and can smell potential prey.
Also, anteaters are the owners of rather long and, moreover, muscular tails, which have useful application– with their help, anteaters can move through trees.
The giant anteater has long fur, especially on its tail, which gives it a broom-like appearance. But in other species of anteaters, the fur, on the contrary, is short and stiff.
Where does the anteater live?
Like their other relatives from the order of edentates, anteaters live exclusively in Central and South America, especially many of them live in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. The northern border of their habitat lies in Mexico. Anteaters are heat-loving animals and, accordingly, live exclusively in places with a warm climate. They like to settle in forests (all anteaters, with the exception of the giant one, easily climb trees) and grassy plains, where many insects live - their potential food.
What does an anteater eat?
As you can guess from the name of this animal, the favorite food of anteaters is, of course, ants, as well as termites. But they are not averse to feasting on other insects, but only small ones, but there is no need to be afraid of large anteater insects, they simply do not eat them. The point here is that anteaters have no teeth; as a result, they swallow their prey whole, and in their stomach it is digested by gastric juice. And since the food of anteaters is small, and the size, on the contrary, is not so small to feed themselves, they devote all their time to searching for something to eat. Like living vacuum cleaners, they roam the jungle, constantly sniffing out and sucking in everything edible. If on the way of an anteater you suddenly come across an anthill or a termite mound, then for him it comes a real holiday and a feast for the whole world (only for ants or termites such a meeting turns into a real disaster).
In the process of absorbing food, the anteater's tongue moves at an incredible speed - up to 160 times per minute. Prey sticks to it thanks to sticky saliva.
Enemies of anteaters
However, the anteaters themselves, in turn, can also become prey for others. dangerous predators, especially jaguars, and big boas. True, to protect against the latter, anteaters have a significant argument - muscular paws with claws. In case of danger, the anteater falls on its back and begins to swing all four paws in all directions. No matter how funny and clumsy such a spectacle may look, in such a position the anteater can inflict serious wounds on its potential offender.
Types of anteaters, photos and names
As we wrote at the beginning, there are three types of anteaters in nature, and further we will write about each of them.
The largest representative of the anteater family, living in South and Central America and also the only one of this family, unable due to big size climb trees. Leads predominantly night image life, when walking, it characteristically bends its legs, leaning on the back of the forelimbs. A means of protection against predators are sharp claws on powerful paws.
Pygmy anteater
On the contrary, the smallest anteater living in tropical forests South America. The pygmy anteater can climb trees very well; moreover, trees are a safe refuge for it from predators. Like other anteaters, it feeds on small insects, ants, termites, and is nocturnal.
Tamandua anteater
He is also a four-toed anteater, lives in Central America, and there are also especially many of them in southern Mexico. It is relatively small in size, larger than the dwarf anteater, but much smaller than the giant one, its body length is up to 88 cm, weight - 4-5 kg. Just like its dwarf relative, tamandua climbs trees well; according to the observations of Venezuelan zoologists, it spends from 13 to 64% of its life in trees. It has poor vision, but has excellent charm, finds his favorite prey, ants and termites, by smell.
Interesting fact: the Amazon Indians long ago domesticated the tamandua anteaters, which have been used since ancient times to fight ants and termites in their homes.
How long do anteaters live?
The average lifespan of anteaters is 15 years.
How do anteaters reproduce?
Anteaters mate twice a year: in spring and autumn. Pregnancy lasts from three months to six months, depending on the species, after which a completely naked little anteater is born, which, however, is already able to independently climb onto its mother’s back.
Interesting fact: anteater dads also take an active part in raising their babies, carrying them on their backs together with their mother.
Up to a month of life, little anteaters move exclusively on the backs of their parents and only then begin to take their first independent steps.
Feeding baby anteaters may not seem like a very pleasant sight to us; mom and dad anteaters regurgitate a special mass of semi-digested insects, which serves as food for the growing little anteaters.
- A typical voracious anteater can eat up to 30 thousand ants or termites in a day.
- Anteaters are not herd animals; they prefer to lead a solitary lifestyle, at most a family one. However, when in captivity they can play well with each other.
- Anteaters have a peaceful nature, which makes them amenable to domestication; they can get along well with more common pets: dogs, and even love to play with children. True, keeping an anteater at home is not so easy, because they cannot stand the cold at all; the favorable temperature for them should be no lower than 24-26 C.
- Anteaters, among other things, are good swimmers and can easily swim across tropical bodies of water.
Anteater, video
And in conclusion, for you, a funny video about anteaters, called “10 reasons to get an anteater.”
This article is available at English language — .
In tropical forests and shrub savannas of the Central and South America An amazing animal lives. A large animal, completely covered with thick fur, with a narrow and long muzzle, like a tube. This is a giant or three-toed anteater.
Giant or three-toed anteater (lat. Myrmecophaga tridactyla) (eng. Giant Anteater). Photo by Tanya Dewey
The habitat of large anteaters is a vast area in the eastern part of South America. Its northern border runs through Honduras (Central America), and its southern border runs through northern Argentina.
Habitat of the giant anteater These anteaters prefer to live in open and semi-open landscapes, since they lead an exclusively terrestrial lifestyle and, unlike dwarf anteaters, they do not have to climb trees. They are mainly active at night. During the day they try to find a secluded place and rest. These animals do not have a specific area of residence and a permanent den. All their lives they move from place to place.
Photo by Vladimir Motyčka Giant anteater is the largest representative of the order of edentates (this also includes the medium and small anteaters, three-toed and two-toed sloths, and armadillos). This is a large land animal, about the size of a dog. The length of its body from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail can reach 230 centimeters. The weight of a giant anteater reaches 40 kilograms.
Photo by PALESTRO His entire body is completely covered with hard hair. On the head, the hair length is the shortest, but starting from the back of the head, it gradually lengthens and reaches its peak on the tail, where its length can reach up to 40 centimeters. Thus, a tail compressed on the sides, taking into account the length of the fur, can reach 95 centimeters, without it it is only 65-68 centimeters. The muzzle, lips and eyelids are bald. The most common color of this animal is brown, but gray and black colors are also found. Juveniles are all light colored.
Photo by Just chaos The head is long and narrow. Most of it is occupied by a tube-shaped muzzle, and the rest of the space is comfortably occupied by small eyes and equally small ears. The mouth, located at the very end of the muzzle, has no teeth, and it doesn’t need them. Its diet is based on ants, termites, their larvae and various caterpillars. But getting to them is not easy. We all know that many termite mounds and anthills have strong walls and not everyone can destroy them. But for a giant anteater this does not amount to special labor. For this purpose, nature awarded him with sharp and long claws.
Photo by Mateus Hidalgo The front paws have 4 toes with claws, the length of which varies from 1 to 6.5 centimeters. Walking on the ground with such claws is not very convenient, so when walking and at rest, the animal presses its long claws to the pads (similar to how we put our fingers on our palm) and steps on the ground not with the flat side of the foot, but with the side. He even has a large callus in this place. The hind limbs, unlike the forelimbs, are five-fingered. Here the claws are not so long. Their length is only 1-2 centimeters.
Having destroyed the impregnable ant (termite) fortress, the anteater falls to the resulting hole with its narrow muzzle and begins to eat. He sticks his thin, long, and also sticky, tongue into all sorts of nooks and crannies of the anthill, pulling out hundreds of glued-on insects with it.
The tongue of this animal works with amazing speed. In a minute, a large anteater throws it out and retracts it about 160 times. He can eat up to 30,000 of these insects in a day! The length of its tongue reaches 61 centimeters, which is a record for land animals. In addition to ants and termites, he will happily taste berries, woodlice, centipedes and other small insect-like creatures.
Since anteaters do not have teeth in their mouths, they are “located” in its stomach, where still living insects fall directly from the mouth. The anteater's stomach is very muscular and has a hard, keratinized lining on its walls. Plus, small pebbles and sand that get into the stomach along with the prey are added to this. They just help grind and crush swallowed insects and berries. Sharp keratinized spines on the palate and folds on the cheeks prevent the insects from getting back out.
Photo by Joel Sartore Giant anteaters are solitary by nature, but there are also pairs. But they do not consist of a male and a female, but of a female and a cub. They move slowly, so catching up with them will not be difficult. He rarely runs away; in cases of danger, it is easier for him to take a fight than to flee, since he simply cannot escape. When attacked, the anteater takes a defensive “stance”: it stands on hind legs and sit bones, and puts the front bones forward towards the enemy. With them, he is capable of causing serious injuries to a small predator. Therefore, even such natural enemies like the jaguar or puma, rarely choose to associate with this animal. Hunting these animals is not particularly popular among local residents. But even despite this, the number of these extraordinary animals is decreasing every year. The giant anteater is now listed as endangered by the IUCN.
Photo by Ellen Perhaps one of the reasons for this sad trend is the low birth rate of these animals. The mating season occurs 2 times a year - in spring and autumn. Pregnancy lasts about six months. Only one cub is born, all covered with hair and weighing about 1.5-1.7 kilograms. They become independent when they reach two years of age. Before this, they relentlessly follow their mother.
Photo by Fabio Paschoal Female giant anteaters are very caring mothers. Some time after birth, the baby independently climbs onto the mother’s back and begins to travel with her. Here it is almost invisible, since its pattern merges with the pattern on the mother’s body. When he reaches the age of one month, he begins to walk on his own, not one step behind his mother.
A more unusual animal than ant-eater It's hard to imagine. Some believe this is a joke of nature. And in fact, he looks very exotic. The very first thing you notice when looking at an anteater is its long muzzle with a very small mouth. He also has a very long fluffy one, which from the outside looks like a broom. Interestingly, the length of the anteater's tongue can reach 60 cm. This is the longest tongue in the world!
There are only three types of anteaters: dwarf, giant, or four-toed.
They differ greatly from each other, primarily in size. The dwarf anteater is only 15-20 cm long and weighs about 400 grams. The giant anteater is simply huge, it can reach a length of 2 meters and weighs 30-35 kg, the tamandua is medium in size, approximately 50-60 cm in length and 3-4 kg in weight.
Anteaters belong to the order of edentates. This, in addition to them, also includes. These animals are completely different from each other.
The anteater can only be found in South and Central America.
Anteaters are nocturnal animals; during the day they sleep, curled up and covered. Small species climb trees, and the giant anteater sleeps right in the open area on the ground. He has no one to fear. Sometimes they try to attack him big cats, but he boldly defends himself with his long claws (up to 10 cm). Small anteaters can be attacked by boa constrictors, owls, and jaguars, but they also defend themselves with the help of their claws, so catching them is not so easy. And tamadua also emits an unpleasant odor, for which it was nicknamed “forest stink” in its homeland.
Living vacuum cleaners
Anteaters are sometimes called “living vacuum cleaners.” In fact, they are always in search of food and, with their huge tongues, suck up small insects that get in their way. They walk with their heads down, turning over driftwood and stones along the way, in search of food. Their sense of smell is very acute. And other senses are poorly developed.
In nature, anteaters feed exclusively on small insects, destroy termite mounds and anthills and lick ants and termites with their sticky, powerful tongue. Separately, it is necessary to say about the language of anteaters. It is very long and powerful, and can move at great speed (up to 160 times per minute). But the anteater has no teeth, so it can only eat small insects. His stomach is very strong, it seems to grind food, making up for the lack of teeth.
Anteaters live alone, very rarely meeting each other. Their mating season occurs twice a year. But they do not have any courtship. The female always gives birth to one baby, which immediately climbs onto her back and is very for a long time spends with her. There are often cases when a mother anteater carries a baby on her back, almost the same size as herself.
Giant Anteater exotic species and some special, exquisite grace can only be compared with an aristocratic greyhound. Maybe that’s why people who are prone to originality and exclusivity have a need to tame this creature, place it in their home, and even take it for a walk, like a pet dog, to everyone’s envy and surprise.
One such original was Salvador Dali in his time. That is, he himself is a generally recognized super-original and shocking figure number one, but even against this background, the 65-year-old surrealist’s tender affection for a giant anteater seemed to his contemporaries a strange phenomenon, to put it mildly.
Dali walked his exotic friend on a golden leash through the streets of Paris, and appeared at social functions holding him on his shoulder. They say that he developed a love for anteaters after he read Andre Breton’s poem “After the Giant Anteater.” Magazine Paris Match In 1969, he posted a photo of the artist leaving the subway onto the street - a cane in one hand, a shaggy, fantastic-looking animal in the other on a leash. He himself commented on his image: “Salvador Dali emerges from the depths of the subconscious with a romantic anteater on a leash.”
So what kind of animal is this?
Anteaters - unusual animals with a rather strange appearance, significantly inferior in popularity to other animal species. There are only four species of anteaters: giant, four-toed, tamandua and dwarf, all of them are united in the family Anteater in the order Inferior. Respectively, only relatives anteaters are armadillos and sloths, although outwardly these animals are completely different from each other.
The sizes of anteaters vary over a very wide range. Thus, the largest giant anteater is simply huge, its body length can reach 2 m, of which almost half is the tail, it weighs 30-35 kg. The tiniest dwarf anteater has a body length of only 16-20 cm and weighs about 400 g. Tamandua and four-toed anteater have a body length of 54-58 cm and weigh 3-5 kg.
The head of anteaters is relatively small, but the muzzle is very elongated, so its length can reach 20-30% of the body length. The muzzle of anteaters is very narrow, and the jaws are fused together so that the anteater practically cannot open its mouth. Essentially, the anteater's face resembles a pipe, at the end of which there are nostrils and a tiny mouth opening. On top of that, anteaters are completely devoid of teeth, but the long tongue stretches the entire length of the muzzle, and the muscles with which it is attached are unprecedentedly powerful - the muscles that control the tongue are attached to the sternum! The giant anteater's tongue is 60 cm long and is considered the longest of all land animals.
A cousin of sloths and armadillos, the giant anteater, like them, is not burdened even with animal intelligence, but is more active and less lazy than sloths living in semi-hibernation. By biological classification all three belong to the order of edentates and three-toeds. But here's the problem: the anteater has no teeth at all - it has no use for them, otherwise nature would have to invent a toothpick to pick out ants stuck between its teeth. And the toes are padded: he has four of them on his front paws, and five on his hind paws. It is not clear who is deceiving whom, the scientists - us, or the anteater - the scientists.
Home of the giant anteater and the only place Its habitat for the last millions of years has been the scrub savannah and sparse forests of South America, from the Gran Chaco in Argentina to Costa Rica in Central America. Unlike his fellow creatures, he is an exclusively pedestrian creature, does not climb trees and sleeps on the ground, in a secluded place, hiding his long muzzle in his front paws and covering himself with his luxurious tail like a blanket.
He is a peaceful animal, he will not offend anyone except insects, he scours forests and meadows day and night in search of anthills and termite mounds. He lives anywhere, sleeps anywhere, waddles around, slowly. Try walking differently, leaning on the backs of your hands. Nature has endowed him with such powerful and long claws that they are only a hindrance when walking. So the poor fellow has to bend them. But what a powerful tool it is for penetrating very strong termite mounds!
But don’t think that this beast can’t stand up for itself at all if its calluses are stepped on. To get rid of the pursuer, he will first speed up his pace, going to a trot. (A person, of course, can catch up with him and kill him just by hitting him on the head with a stick.) And if he sees that he cannot get away, he will sit on his hind legs and, like a boxer, put his front legs forward menacingly, spreading his powerful claws. The only sound that can be achieved from him by bothering him greatly is a dull growl. A blow from a paw with 10-centimeter claws can seriously hurt you. But if this does not stop the attacker, the anteater enters into combat with him. a fight to the death. There are cases when such fights ended disastrously for a person.
A white plantation manager in Paraguay encountered an anteater and decided to kill it. Having chased the fleeing animal, he stabbed it with a long garden knife. The anteater stopped, turned around and grabbed him with his strong front paws, depriving him of the opportunity not only to attack, but also to resist. In vain attempts to free himself from the iron embrace, the man knocked the beast down, and they rolled on the ground in a single ball for a long time, until people came running to his desperate cries. Only then did the anteater release the offender and go into the forest. The mutilated and bleeding manager was taken to the hospital, where he remained for several months.
And recently at the Argentine zoo Florencio Varela, not far from Buenos Aires, 19-year-old researcher Melisa Casco, working on a program to preserve giant anteaters from extinction, apparently forgetting about vigilance, got too close to a specimen kept in an enclosure. Since there are not enough brains in the anteater’s skull, he did not recognize the good intentions of the young scientist - apparently the genetic memory worked that the person was his worst enemy. And he took her into his deadly embrace. The girl was taken to hospital with severe injuries to her leg and abdomen. Her leg was supposed to be amputated, but Melisa died.
Apart from the two-legged enemy, the only dangers for the giant anteater are the puma and the jaguar. But they, as a rule, prefer not to mess with him, fearing his terrible claws.
This creature weighs 40 kilograms, with a body length of up to 130 cm. Let’s add here almost a meter for a chic fluffy tail and a tongue that protrudes up to half a meter. Hairline his, like himself, is very peculiar - hard, elastic, thick and uneven in length. On the muzzle it tapers off, and towards the body its length increases, forming an impressive withers-mane along the ridge and frills on the paws. The tail fluffs from top to bottom, like a fan or a flag, the 60-centimeter hair on it hangs to the ground. The most characteristic color of the giant anteater is silver-gray (sometimes cocoa-colored), with a wide black stripe running diagonally across the entire body - from the chest to the sacrum. The lower part of the head, underbelly and tail are colored black-brown. 
Everything in this body amazing creature adapted for obtaining, grinding and digesting entire hordes of insects. The anteater will punch a hole in the termite mound with its paw, stick its long narrow muzzle inside, like a trunk or a hose, and get to work. No matter how long his muzzle is, his tongue is even longer - narrow, nimble, muscular, like a snake. Its base is attached right behind the sternum - a considerable distance, considering that the anteater’s neck is not short. In general, it will be half the length of the body, longer than that of an elephant and a giraffe (and the giraffe also does not complain about its tongue).
Having penetrated with its snout into the lair of termites or ants disturbed by its invasion, it uses its tongue, shooting it at a speed of 160 times per minute. And every time the tongue retracts, salivary glands they moisten it generously with very sticky saliva, so that insects immediately stick to it. In one meal, an anteater can send up to 35 thousand termites into its stomach.
In order for the batch stuck to the tongue to remain in the mouth, on the inner surface of the cheeks and palate there are sort of brushes made of horny bristles, scraping off the catch and freeing the tongue to grab the next one. At the same time, the anteater’s mouth is very tiny, intended only for throwing out its tongue.
If he does not come across an anthill or termite mound on his way, he may well satisfy his hunger ordinary insects, including worms and larvae. Small forest berries will also suit him, which he can eat without using the services of a whip-like tongue, but, like all normal animals, carefully tearing them off the branch with his lips.
The male anteater is not burdened by nature with paternal responsibility to his offspring - he did his job and went on to wander. But the female, it seems, has been concerned only with motherhood throughout her difficult life.
Having carried the baby (always the only one) in her womb, she then carries him on her back for months. The baby, as soon as it is born, climbs onto its mother. He remains weak and helpless for a long time - almost up to two years, therefore, even after stopping feeding him, the anteater helps him get adult food by breaking open termite mounds. And while she is busy nursing the baby, the time comes new pregnancy, and everything repeats again... and again.
The anteater's brains were in a narrow, pipe-like skull, and the cat cried. So you can’t expect miracles of training from him. Even Vladimir Durov did not count on this. He only used the natural habits of the animal, preparing it for a circus act. Natural, natural, and the result was impressive. Forcing the anteater to rise on its hind legs and using its grasping-hugging reflex, he placed a gun in its clawed paws. In Durov's circus show, an anteater guarded the entrance to the fortress and fired a gun, and even, harnessed to a carriage, rolled a monkey around the arena.
A forest tramp has enough brains to become, within the walls of a city apartment, a sweet, pampered lazy person who likes to sleep in his master’s bed, hang upside down on a closet or door lintel, allow himself to be fed treats, cuddled, caressed, walked, and even allowed to be groomed. yourself in children's clothes - caps, vests, sweaters, jeans. What else does a loving housewife or owner need to dote on their pet?
All species of anteaters are low-fertile by nature and are very dependent on specific food sources, so these animals have difficulty restoring their numbers in places where they are exterminated. Local residents have always hunted these animals for meat, so the giant anteater is already listed in the Red Book as endangered. However, the greatest danger to them is not hunters, but the destruction of natural habitats. Anteaters are also not often seen in zoos, perhaps due to the low public interest in the little-known animal. At the same time, keeping these animals in captivity turned out to be surprisingly easy. Gourmet anteaters in captivity easily switch to food that is unusual for them - they happily eat not only insects, but also minced meat, berries, fruits, and especially love... milk.
In addition, it is not at all necessary for them to plant termite mounds and anthills in the house or garden. This original, peaceful and generally docile animal, without problems or complaints, caressed by sweet captivity, easily switches to the human diet - berries, fruits, meat, boiled eggs. The main thing is to serve them to him in crushed form: after all, an anteater’s mouth is no wider than the neck of a bottle.
A person should pray to an anteater - not a tame one, of course, but a wild one - to protect, to create favorable conditions for its reproduction and survival, because nature probably never came up with a more useful creature. But instead, he is mercilessly and thoughtlessly exterminated. As soon as homo sapiens a hand rises to kill such a treasure when termites have become a real scourge of both American continents, and methods of combating them have not yet been found!
Alas, the number of giant anteaters in South America, listed in the International Red Book, continues to decline catastrophically, and they can be found in wildlife maybe less and less...
The eyes and ears of anteaters are small, the neck middle length, but it seems shorter because it is not very flexible. The paws are strong and end in powerful claws. Only these claws, long and curved like hooks, remind us of the relationship of anteaters with sloths and armadillos. The tail of anteaters is long, and in the giant anteater it is not at all flexible and is directed all the time parallel to the surface of the earth, but in other species it is muscular and tenacious, with its help the anteaters move through the trees. Wool tree species the anteater's is short, while the giant anteater's is long and very tough. The hair on the tail is especially long, which gives the giant anteater's tail a broom-like appearance. The color of the giant anteater is brown, the front legs are lighter in color (sometimes almost white), and a black stripe stretches from the chest to the back. The remaining species of anteaters are colored in contrasting yellowish-brown and white tones; the color of the tamandua looks especially bright.
Anteaters, like other representatives of the order Incomplete-toothed, live exclusively in America. The largest range of giant and dwarf anteaters is found in Central and most of South America. Tamandua lives only in central South America - Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The northernmost species is the four-toed anteater, whose range extends from Venezuela north to Mexico inclusive. The giant anteater inhabits grassy plains (pampas), and other species are closely associated with trees, and therefore live in rare forests. The rhythm of life of these animals is unhurried. Most of the time they walk on the ground in search of food, simultaneously turning over stones, snags, and stumps along the way. Because of their long claws, anteaters cannot rest on the entire plane of their paws, so they place them slightly obliquely, and sometimes rest on the back of the hand. All types of anteaters (except the giant one) easily climb trees, clinging with clawed paws and holding on with a tenacious tail. In the crowns they examine the bark in search of insects.
These animals are more active at night. Anteaters go to sleep, curled up and covering themselves with their tails, and small species try to choose more secluded places, and a giant anteater can fall asleep without embarrassment in the middle of a bare plain - this giant has no one to fear. In general, anteaters are not very smart (the intelligence of all edentates is poorly developed), but nevertheless, in captivity they like to play with each other, starting clumsy fights. In nature, anteaters live alone and rarely meet each other.
Anteaters feed exclusively on insects and not all of them, but only the smallest species - ants and termites. This selectivity is due to the lack of teeth: since the anteater cannot chew food, it swallows insects whole, and in the stomach they are digested by very aggressive gastric juice. In order for food to be digested faster, it must be small enough, so large insects anteaters don't eat. However, the anteater makes the work of its stomach easier by partially grinding or crushing insects against the hard palate at the moment of swallowing. Since the food of anteaters is small, they are forced to absorb it in large quantities, therefore they are in continuous search. Anteaters move like living vacuum cleaners, tilting their heads to the ground and continuously sniffing out and drawing everything edible into their mouths (their sense of smell is very acute). Possessing disproportionately great strength, they noisily overturn snags, and if they encounter a termite mound on their way, they cause real destruction in it. With powerful claws, anteaters destroy the termite mound and quickly lick termites from the surface. During the feast, the anteater's tongue moves at tremendous speed (up to 160 times per minute!), which is why it has such powerful muscles. Insects stick to the tongue thanks to sticky saliva; the salivary glands also reach enormous sizes and are attached to the sternum, like the tongue. 
Mating in giant anteaters occurs twice a year - in spring and autumn, other species mate more often in autumn. Since anteaters live alone, there is rarely more than one male near one female, therefore these animals do not have mating rituals. The male finds the female by smell; anteaters are silent and do not give special calling signals. Pregnancy lasts from 3-4 (for the dwarf) to 6 months (for the giant anteater). The female, standing, gives birth to one calf, rather small and naked, which independently climbs onto her back. From that moment on, she carries it on herself all the time, and the cub tenaciously clings to her back with its clawed paws. At the giant anteater little cub It is generally difficult to detect because it is buried in the mother's coarse fur. Tamandua females often, while feeding on a tree, place the baby on some branch; after completing all her business, the mother takes the baby and goes down. Baby anteaters spend time with their mother long time: for the first month they are inseparably on her back, then they begin to descend to the ground, but remain associated with the female for up to two years! It is not uncommon to see a female anteater carrying a “baby” almost equal in size to her on her back. Puberty different types reach in 1-2 years. Giant anteaters live up to 15 years, tamanduas - up to 9.
In nature, anteaters have few enemies. Only jaguars generally dare to attack large giant anteaters, but this animal has a weapon against predators - claws up to 10 cm long. In case of danger, the anteater falls on its back and begins to clumsily swing all four paws. The external absurdity of this behavior is deceptive; the anteater can cause severe wounds. Small species are more vulnerable; in addition to jaguars, large boas and eagles can attack them, but these animals also defend themselves with the help of their claws. In addition to turning over on their back, they can sit on their tail and fight off with their paws, and the pygmy anteater does the same thing while hanging on its tail from a tree branch. And tamandua also uses an unpleasant odor as an additional protection, for which local residents even nicknamed it “forest stink.”
sources
http://www.chayka.org/node/2718
http://www.animalsglobe.ru/muravyedi/
http://zoo-flo.com/view_post.php?id=344
http://www.animals-wild.ru/mlekopitayushhie-zhivotnye/259-gigantskij-muraved.html
