wildlife-rescue-magazine: “ Giant anteaters in Brazil have killed two hunters in separate incidents, raising concerns about the animals’ loss of habitat and the growing risk of dangerous encounters with people, researchers said. The long-nosed, hairy...
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wildlife-rescue-magazine:

Giant anteaters in Brazil have killed two hunters in separate incidents, raising concerns about the animals’ loss of habitat and the growing risk of dangerous encounters with people, researchers said. The long-nosed, hairy mammals are not typically aggressive toward people and are considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), largely due to deforestation and human settlements that encroach on their territory. The case studies of two fatal attacks by giant anteaters were described in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, which released the paper online this month, ahead of its publication in the December print issue. “Both were farmers, were hunting and were attacked by wounded or cornered animals,” lead author Vidal Haddad of the Botucatu School of Medicine at Sao Paulo State University told AFP.

(via wildlife-rescue-magazine)

Source: Yahoo!

biomedicalephemera: “ Giant Anteater - Myrmecophaga tridactyla The giant anteater is much bigger than illustrations make them seem - males can get up to 90 lbs and over 7 feet long. Their tongues are “elastic”, almost 2 feet long, coated in a sticky...
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biomedicalephemera: “ Giant Anteater - Myrmecophaga tridactyla The giant anteater is much bigger than illustrations make them seem - males can get up to 90 lbs and over 7 feet long. Their tongues are “elastic”, almost 2 feet long, coated in a sticky...
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biomedicalephemera:

Giant Anteater - Myrmecophaga tridactyla

The giant anteater is much bigger than illustrations make them seem - males can get up to 90 lbs and over 7 feet long.

Their tongues are “elastic”, almost 2 feet long, coated in a sticky saliva, and anchored directly to their sternums, rather than the hyoid bone that anchors most mammalian tongues. They flick in and out almost 180 times per minute. As one might expect, they do not have teeth, but smash the ants against their palate before swallowing. Their stomachs are tough, but do not produce their own acid; they use the formic acid of the ants in order to digest.

Since the structure of termite mounds can be as tough as concrete in some places, the anteaters need strong, well-anchored claws to tear them open. These claws would get in the way while trotting through their environments, however, and as such, anteaters walk on their knuckles, much like the great apes.

Brehms Tierleben, Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs. Prof. Otto zur Strassen, 1912.