The anteater

📖 In short

The anteater is a strange-looking animal, with a very long tube-like head, an even longer tongue and a bushy tail. As its name says, it eats ants and termites. The giant anteater lives in Central and South America.

🤩 Did you know?

A giant anteater can be more than 1.8 meters long with its tail.
A giant anteater can eat about 30 thousand ants a day!
A baby anteater rides on its mother's back.
The anteater uses its bushy tail as a blanket when it sleeps.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 An amazing tongue

The anteater has a long sticky tongue more than 30 centimeters long. It pokes it into ant nests and pulls it out very fast, so the ants stick to it. It does this many times a minute.

🔍 No teeth

The anteater has no teeth at all! It swallows ants whole, and its strong stomach grinds them up.

💡 Powerful claws

Its front feet have big sharp claws that it uses to dig into hard termite mounds and to defend itself. It walks on its knuckles to protect its claws.

🎯 A little from each nest

The anteater doesn't eat the whole nest, just a little before moving to another one. That way the ants stay alive and multiply, so there's food next time.