Pedigree of anteaters, subspecies, description of their appearance and behavior in open nature, advice on maintenance and care, cost. Sometimes it happens that, looking at pictures of living creatures from the animal kingdom, the thought involuntarily comes to mind that our mother nature is still a dreamer. There are so many original creatures on our planet, we can even say not "original", but rather "bizarre". Take, for example, an anteater, one cannot disagree with the fact that its appearance, well, at all has no resemblance to any animal. Looking at him, one might think: “Does he really exist? Or is it just a character from another popular fantasy book? " But this is in reality a living being, just with a rather unusual appearance.
In our modern era, for some people, one of the main life credos is that they strive to be different from everyone else, and everyone tries to express their individuality and specific high taste in all ways and means available to them. Today, exotic pets are a very fashionable and widespread craft, and the more expensive, unique and pretentious they are, the better.
The aforementioned anteater is no exception from such an exotic list. Nowadays, he is not so often turned on as a friend of his lesser, but still it happens. Why rarely? Many may think that the more peculiar the animal, the harder it is to get along with it under one roof, that exotics require a lot of attention and effort, and that there are a lot of all kinds of "exotic" difficulties and problems with them. But this is not said at all about the anteater.
He is brought to his house not so often due to the fact that the cost of such an animal is quite high and not everyone can afford such a friend, but keeping him is not that unproblematic, but even very easy. In addition, by his nature, he is very sweet and friendly, he is able to make friends with children, and with guests of your house, and even with its other inhabitants from the animal world. But whatever one may say and do not praise this animal with a very outstanding appearance and docile character - a wild animal remains for them at home. So before spending your savings on such a friend, it would be better to get to know him better and find out who this eccentric is and "what they eat him with."
The origin and varieties of the domestic anteater
The world learned about these amazing representatives of the world fauna around the beginning of the 19th century from the scientist Gray, at the same time a unified scientific classification was adopted, which states that anteaters belong to the class of mammals, the order of edentulous and the family of anteaters.
In general, over ten different species of these fabulous animals live on our large planet, but only two representatives of their family are the most studied and in demand as domestic pupils.
A giant anteater, a three-toed anteater, or just a big anteater, as you call it, are all the same character. This animal is distinguished by the most impressive body parameters in comparison with all its other relatives, so it is not strange why it received such a name. In length, its original body grows to approximately 110–140 cm, the caudal process is in no way inferior, its length is approximately 85–100 cm. The body weight of an adult, mature animal ranges from 35 to 43 kg.
If we talk about such a bizarre animal like an anteater, then it is impossible to single out something special in it, it seems that his whole body is one continuous attraction. Look only at the face, it is quite long with a relatively small mouth, its structure is somewhat reminiscent of a tube, but that's not all. From such a tiny oral cavity, a tongue is often shown, which is also not devoid of uniqueness, well, it is very long, has excellent flexibility and mobility, some associate it with a snake, and this is to some extent true. It seems that this part of the body of the three-toed anteater is capable of living its own life, its length is on average about 55–65 cm.
The eyes of this animal are very small, they look more like narrow slits. A separate topic and its tail, it is also very long, while also compressed on both sides. All this peculiar body is covered with thick wool, the length of which varies in different areas.
The color is not uniform, the main color scheme of this incomplete-toothed giant is grayish-silver, however, the back of the body is presented in darker shades, the chest area is completely black, and from it in different directions, as it were, the patterns that are directed slightly diagonally spread out. Such an ornament has a wedge-shaped shape.
The natural habitat of this mammal is South America, namely the territory from Argentina to Costa Rica. There, this animal prefers to live in savannas filled with shrubby vegetation, and are also found in wooded areas of medium density.
What is this cute giant doing in his homeland? In conditions of open nature, this eccentric leads an exclusively terrestrial lifestyle, since he cannot swim or climb trees. The period of activity for him falls at night, but if the animal is sure that he will not have a chance to meet a person on its way, then it may well go for a walk when the sun is still shining, although this does not happen often. Since a deep long sleep for an anteater is to some extent a dogma, these animals stay in a state of sleep for more than 14-15 hours a day. Another reason that these representatives of incomplete teeth rarely cover long distances is that it is very difficult for them to move on the surface of the earth, and it is all the fault of their long claws, poor fellows, in order to walk, have to tighten their claws and lean on the back surface of the limbs.
But such an outstanding "manicure" of the anteater only hinders them to some extent, because nature could not just create such uncomfortable claws, and not for them, who knows what this animal would eat. It is with this "device" that he destroys anthills and termite mounds in order to get his prey out of there. His long tongue, which is moistened with sticky saliva, helps him to catch his delicious lunch. According to some sources, in one day, this eccentric catches over 30,000-35,000 different insects, and the rate of ejection of the tongue is about 150 times per minute. In addition to live food, this three-toed giant will never refuse to feast on the fruits of palm trees, because it also needs liquid and nutrients.
The mating season for these mammals occurs twice a year. The duration of pregnancy is approximately 6 months, so we can say that female anteaters are always either pregnant or already mothers with small children. There is always one cub in a litter, the body weight of a newborn is approximately 1400-1700 grams. From the very birth, the baby is already covered with fur. For a long time, the child does not leave his mother for a minute and travels with her everywhere, comfortably sitting on the mother's back. At the age of two years, the cub can already be called an adult of a large anteater, but the ability to continue the genus appears only in the fourth year of life.
Tamandua, or four-fingered anteater. As for this representative of the anteater family, it is almost half the size of its giant congener. The body of the tamandua is approximately 50-60 cm long; the caudal process is usually the same in length as the body.
The forelimbs of this animal are very strong and muscular, each of them has four fingers, at the end of the third toe there is a particularly long claw. The tail is also not devoid of strength, with the help of it the anteater climbs trees, tenaciously grabbing the branches, and also escapes from enemies.
The face of the Tamandua has significant similarity in general features with the face of the giant incomplete toothed, but it is much smaller in size, in addition, it is slightly shortened and wide. The adornment of the "face" of this animal is its ears, which are quite widely spaced and immediately catch the eye, since they are quite large in relation to the head.
The surface of the body of this animal is covered with thick, short and very coarse textured hair. The main color scheme of such a fur coat is brown with a slight yellowish tint, and on the body there is a chaotically drawn ornament, the color of which is brownish-black.
In the open nature, the four-toed animal can also be found in South America, only closer to the southern part of Mexico and Paraguay. There he was accustomed to settling on the edges of forests, as well as in park gardens and savannas.
It is very exciting to watch how this delightful representative of the world fauna moves on the ground, he walks very slowly, he has nowhere to rush, and there is no need. The period of activity for this living creature begins when twilight falls on the earth and so it can wander for most of the night, both in search of food, and just for pleasure. When he was lucky enough to stumble upon an anthill, he immediately gets to work. With his claws, he quickly tears it apart and begins to catch his prey with his tongue. He is good at conquering the tops of not very tall trees, although he does this more out of nothing to do, because there is not much food there. If on his way he met a passer-by who poses a danger to this peculiar beast, he is not lost. In a state of strong fright, the tamandua quickly rises on its hind limbs and rests on its tail. He does not have enough strength, and can be smart enough to grab an enemy individual with his front paws, he simply with mighty force grasps with his claws everything that is at the distance of his outstretched paw. But this is far from all the means of its protection, when overexcited, the animal begins to emit rather loud and piercing sounds, which are perceived by ear as a hiss, in addition, at the same time, a not very pleasant smell emanates from it. For this "fragrant" reason in his homeland he was called "forest stinker".
These animals are capable of breeding almost all year round, but most often their rut begins around September. The fair sex reaches sexual maturity at the age of one year, while males are a little late and can reproduce fully at the age of 1, 5–2 years.
Dwarf anteater. This cute representative of his kind differs not only in small body size, but in comparison with its large relative, simply tiny. The body length of this little baby is about 35–45 cm, it would seem that this is not so little, but the fact is that about half of this indicator falls on the caudal process.
As for its appearance, we can safely say that this is just a reduced variation of the three-toed anteater, such a mini-animal, whose body weight does not exceed 500 grams.
Mother nature, although a little cheated this cutie in size, but in return she got a very attractive spring look and a very strong and prehensile tail, which in any difficult and simply sad moment saves the mini-anteater.
The body of this anteater is covered with thick, soft and fluffy hair. The main color tone of this cub is light brown, and in the sun it just fabulously shimmers with a golden hue.
Like all the other anteaters, this crumb feeds on the inhabitants of anthills, but if on the way he met any small bug, then this sly man will not refuse to eat them. A very interesting way of feeding these animals, the whole point is that there are no teeth in their oral cavity, and the food must be chewed somehow, then the stomach walls, which have a well-developed muscle layer, took over this responsibility.
Looking at the miniature, which is the very convenient size of this animal, it is the dwarf edentulous one who most often starts as a pet.
Keeping an anteater at home
Keeping such a pet in your house is really very funny and exciting. A domestic anteater may well do without its own cage and, believe me, you will not offend him in any way, because who will be happy to be locked up behind bars. Having such a friend in the house, you should get used to it and accept the fact that this is, to some extent, almost like a small child. So it would be nice to allocate a separate room for him, in which, by the way, he can be locked when you leave for work, since this craftsman can do such a thing in the house that you are unlikely to praise him.
Furniture most often suffers from such a friend from South America, he, like a cat, seeks to sharpen his claws on its upholstery, and they are rather big, so it is better that his walks around the apartment are carried out under someone's careful supervision. In addition, by its nature, an anteater is a creature not deprived of intelligence, in this regard, he really loves to poke his long, curious face, in all corners into which it crawls and not very, in which case he also has paws.
If such an unpleasant situation has happened and this pretty tenant has already managed to mess up his affairs in the house, do not rush to scold him or, moreover, educate him, using force. Firstly, you will scare him, and this can negatively affect your future relationships, because the animal may begin to perceive you not as a friend at all. Well, the second reason why you should not "attack" him is that, although he is kind, he is still a wild beast. He himself will never begin to hunt you, but he is not used to giving offense to himself, so you can easily get hit with a heavy muscular paw, moreover, armed with a long sharp claw.
It is not a problem to take such a pet out for walks in the yard on a leash, only it must be taught to these adaptations from early childhood. So, for example, Salvador Dali kept such an unusual friend and walked around the city with him every day in search of inspiration.
This eccentric loves to be paid attention to, you can play with him, dress him, comb, he will not run away or kick. The anteater will just calmly calm down, rejoice and have fun. At home, it is not necessary to catch tens of thousands of ants for him, he will be quite pleased with such a treat as porridge with minced meat, best of all rice, you can also give him various fruits and eggs. Just do not forget that he has no teeth - the lunch will have to be thoroughly grinded. But during a walk, you can calmly bring him to the anthills, believe me, he will not be confused and will get to work, instincts will take their toll in any case.
Since this exotic comes from warm countries, it should not be allowed to freeze, so fashionable clothes for an anteater are not only fun and beautiful, but also to some extent necessary. Also, during sleep, it should be covered with something warm.
The average cost of such an extraordinary pet ranges from 500,000 to 2,500,000 rubles.
What a house anteater looks like, see the video below:
