Great anteater

The anteater's tongue can grow up to 60 centimetres long and has a sticky saliva layer and small barbs. Once ants or termites attach themselves to the tongue, it is very difficult for them to escape.

Its sense of smell is 40 times better than humans and its body temperature is between 32.5 and 35 degrees centigrade. This means that it can survive on very low-calorie food.

The great anteater lives alone and is only with others when he and she meet to mate. The anteater is nocturnal and active at dusk and dawn, but still sleeps up to 15 hours a day.

• Distribution: Tropical rainforest and grasslands in South and Central America
• Population: Highly endangered.
• Weight: 20-40 kilos. The male is somewhat heavier than the female
• Body length: 100-120 centimetres
• Neck length: 70-90 centimetres
• Mating season: March to May
• Sexual maturity: From 2-3 years of age
• Gestation: 180-190 days
• Incubation period: Gives birth to 1 chick, which sucks for approximately 6 months. Until the chick is a year old, the mother carries it around on her back
• Food: Ants, termites and beetle larvae. Eats the equivalent of approximately 30,000 large ants every day.
• Zoo menu: Banana, orange juice, cat food, beef, dog food, Paraghurt, oak bark, milk powder, fresh eggs.
• Lifespan: In captivity up to 26 years. Unknown in the wild
• Latin name: Myrmecophaga tridactyla

It is the anteater that has given its name to the group of primitive mammals called munchers because it has no teeth. Other munchers include only sloths and armadillos.

Although the anteater can't bite, you should beware. They have large, strong and sharp claws on their front legs, which they use both to defend themselves if they feel threatened and as a tool to obtain food. In the wild, an anteater eats 30-40,000 termites every day, and the claws are very effective tools for breaking down the concrete-hard termite nests. Anteaters are actually omnivorous, eating everything from fallen fruit to carrion.  

For the first six months or so of an anteater chick's life, it nurses with its mother. Until it is a year old and almost as big as its mother, it is carried around on her back.