Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Giant anteaters are found in Cen­tral and South Amer­ica, from south­ern Be­lize and Guatemala to north­ern Ar­gentina. (Red­ford and Eisen­berg, 1992)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical

Habi­tat

Giant anteaters use a va­ri­ety of habi­tats, in­clud­ing swamp, forests, and grass­lands. They choose se­cluded, cov­ered areas for sleep­ing. Giant anteaters can be found in both rural and densely pop­u­lated areas. (Shaw, et al., 1987; An­der­son, 1967)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Giant anteaters are quite dis­tinc­tive mor­pho­log­i­cally, they are the largest of the anteater species. The snout is long (up to 45 cm in length) and the skull is stream­lined with small eyes and ears. The tail is large and bushy and is nearly as long as the body. Head and body length mea­sures 1,000 to 1,200 mm and tail length 650 to 900 mm. Weight ranges from 18 to 39 kg. Giant anteaters have fur that is thick and coarse and longer to­wards the tail. Their coat is brown with black and white stripes on the shoul­ders and a crest of hair along the mid­dle of the back. The forelegs are white with black bands at the toes. Their hind­feet have 5 short claws, while their forefeet have 5 claws with the inner 3 being very long and sharp. They walk on the wrists of their forefeet, with these large claws curled out of the way. Giant anteaters have no teeth. The tongue can be ex­tended 610 mm out­side of the mouth and has spine-like pro­tru­sions. (Naples, 1999; Shaw, et al., 1987)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  18 to 39 kg

  39.65 to 85.90 lb

• Range length

  1 to 1.2 m

  3.28 to 3.94 ft

• Average basal metabolic rate

  14.543 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

The mat­ing sys­tem of M. tri­dactyla is not known. Re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior is pri­mar­ily ob­served in cap­tiv­ity. The male stands over the fe­male who lays on her side dur­ing cop­u­la­tion. (Jones, 1982)

Ges­ta­tion is ap­prox­i­mately 190 days, after which fe­males give birth to a sin­gle young which weighs about 1.3 kg. Fe­males give birth stand­ing up and im­me­di­ately the young anteater climbs onto her back. Young are born with a full coat of hair and adult-like mark­ings. Breed­ing oc­curs year-round in cap­tiv­ity and the wild, though sea­sonal breed­ing times have been re­ported in por­tions of their range. In­ter-birth in­ter­vals can be as low as 9 months. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity is reached be­tween 2.5 and 4 years. The mam­mary glands are lat­eral to the 'armpits' on the chest. (Shaw, et al., 1987; Red­ford and Eisen­berg, 1992; Nowak, 1999)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Giant anteaters can breed as often as every 9 months, though it is often longer.

• Breeding season

  Giant anteaters may breed year round, or seasonally depending on region.

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  190 days

• Average gestation period

  184 days

  AnAge

• Average weaning age

  6 months

• Average time to independence

  24 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2.5 to 4 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2.5 to 4 years

Young are born with a full coat of hair and adult mark­ings and are ca­pa­ble of cling­ing to their mother at birth. A mother will carry the baby on her back until it is al­most half her size, about 6 to 9 months. Young suckle for 2 to 6 months. They be­come in­de­pen­dent after about 2 years, or when the mother be­comes preg­nant again, which may be sooner. (Nowak, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• female parental care

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Giant anteaters have been known to live up to 25 years and 10 months in cap­tiv­ity. Their longevity in the wild is un­known. (Jones, 1982)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  25 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  26.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  25.8 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Giant anteaters are usu­ally soli­tary, ex­cept for mother-young pairs, only com­ing to­gether for brief pe­ri­ods for courtship and ag­o­nis­tic en­coun­ters. They may have large, de­fined home ranges up to 9,000 ha in area, but they also wan­der ex­ten­sively. When giant anteaters en­counter each other in the wild they often sim­ply ig­nore each other or run away, though ag­o­nis­tic en­coun­ters do also occur. Usu­ally di­ur­nal, giant anteaters will be­come noc­tur­nal in areas of high human den­sity or dur­ing cer­tain kinds of weather. They are ter­res­trial but are good swim­mers as well and, though they don't often climb in the wild, they are re­ported to be skilled at climb­ing out of en­clo­sures in cap­tiv­ity. Sleep­ing oc­curs in aban­doned bur­rows, dense veg­e­ta­tion, or de­pres­sions in the ground. Al­though they have the abil­ity to dig well, they do not con­struct bur­rows. When fights occur in­di­vid­u­als rear into a bipedal stance using the tail to bal­ance and the fore­limbs to fight. They shuf­fle while walk­ing and move slowly but are ca­pa­ble of run­ning quickly if nec­es­sary. Their weight is born on the knuck­les and wrist to pro­tect the claws. (Shaw, et al., 1987; An­der­son, 1967)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• nomadic
• solitary

Home Range

Home ranges may be as big as 9,000 hectares in area. (Red­ford and Eisen­berg, 1992; Nowak, 1999)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Most com­mu­ni­ca­tion oc­curs be­tween young and their moth­ers or dur­ing fight­ing. It con­sists of snorts, sniffs, and hisses, as well as roar­ing dur­ing fights. Sight and hear­ing are di­min­ished. Smell is highly de­vel­oped-40 times that of hu­mans. (Shaw, et al., 1987; Red­ford and Eisen­berg, 1992)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Giant anteaters eat ants, ter­mites, and soft-bod­ied grubs. Using the long, sharp claws on their fore­limbs, they open in­sect colonies and tree trunks. They then use the tongue to col­lect the eggs, lar­vae, and adult in­sects. The sali­vary glands se­crete sticky saliva dur­ing feed­ing that coats the tongue. They only stay at one ant colony for a short pe­riod of time be­cause sol­dier ants ar­rive but giant anteaters can con­sume a few thou­sand in­sects in min­utes. The tongue is at­tached to the ster­num and moves very quickly, flick­ing 150 times per minute. They may some­times eat fruit. (Naples, 1999)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

Giant anteaters can use their im­mense front claws to de­fend them­selves from preda­tors, though their typ­i­cal re­sponse to threat is to run away. Their size makes them in­vul­ner­a­ble to all but the largest of preda­tors, jaguars and pumas pri­mar­ily. They are often killed by hu­mans, ei­ther in­ten­tion­ally through hunt­ing or un­in­ten­tion­ally through col­li­sions with cars. (Nowak, 1999)

• Known Predators

  • Jaguars (Panthera onca)
  • mountain lions (Puma concolor)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Giant anteaters, through their diet, have an enor­mous im­pact on local in­sect com­mu­ni­ties. (Nowak, 1999)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Giant anteaters are hunted for food, fur, and sport. They are also valu­able for the cri­ical ecosys­tem roles they play. (Shaw, et al., 1987; An­der­son, 1967)

• Positive Impacts
• body parts are source of valuable material
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Giant anteaters are in­creas­ingly killed in car ac­ci­dents. ("Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion Fund: Species Data for Giant Anteater", 2001)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Habi­tat de­struc­tion is the pri­mary threat to giant anteaters. They are listed as Ap­pen­dix II by the Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species (CITES). Ap­pen­dix II is de­fined as a species not nec­es­sar­ily threat­ened to ex­tinc­tion but one that should be con­trolled in trade to avoid overuse. They are listed as vul­ner­a­ble by the In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources (IUCN). 'Vul­ner­a­ble' is de­fined as an es­ti­mated pop­u­la­tion re­duc­tion of 20% in the next 10 years. ("Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna", 2003; "In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources", 1997)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• CITES

  Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Amy Woltan­ski (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity, Bar­bara Lun­dri­gan (ed­i­tor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

CITES Sec­re­tariat. 2003. "Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 02/02/03 at http://​www.​cites.​org.

IUCN. 1997. "In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 02/02/03 at http://​www.​redlist.​org.

Rain For­est Con­ser­va­tion Fund. 2001. "Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion Fund: Species Data for Giant Anteater" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 02/02/03 at http://​www.​rainforestconservation.​org/​data_​sheets/​mammals/​anteater.​html.

An­der­son, S. 1967. Re­cent Mam­mals of the World. New York: The Ronald Press Com­pany.

Jones, M. 1982. Longevity of cap­tive mam­mals. Zool. Garten, 52: 113-128.

Naples, V. 1999. Mor­phol­ogy, evo­lu­tion, and func­tion of feed­ing in the giant anteater. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy-Lon­don, 249: 19-41.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Vol­ume I. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Red­ford, K., J. Eisen­berg. 1992. Mam­mals of the Neotrop­ics. Chicago, IL: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Shaw, , Machado-Neto, Carter. 1987. Be­hav­ior of free-liv­ing giant anteaters. Biotrop­ica, 19(3): 255-259.