Anteaters live in. Domestic anteater, a kind and quiet pet
Animals of Venezuela: giant anteater ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla) from "RuColumb"
In tropical forests and shrub savannas of the Central and South America An amazing animal lives. A large animal, completely covered with thick fur, with a narrow and long muzzle, like a tube. This is a giant or three-toed anteater.
The habitat of large anteaters is a vast area in the eastern part of South America. Its northern border runs through Honduras (Central America), and its southern border runs through northern Argentina.
These anteaters prefer to live in open and semi-open landscapes, since they lead an exclusively terrestrial lifestyle and, unlike dwarf anteaters, they do not have to climb trees. They are mainly active at night. During the day they try to find a secluded place and rest. These animals do not have a specific area of residence and a permanent den. All their lives they move from place to place.
The giant anteater is the most major representative order of edentates (this also includes the medium and small anteaters, three-toed and two-toed sloths, armadillos). This is a large land animal, about the size of a dog. The length of its body from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail can reach 230 centimeters. The weight of a giant anteater reaches 40 kilograms.
His entire body is completely covered with hard hair. On the head, the length of the hair is the shortest, but starting from the back of the head, it gradually lengthens and reaches its peak on the tail, where its length can reach up to 40 centimeters. Thus, a tail compressed on the sides, taking into account the length of the fur, can reach 95 centimeters, without it it is only 65-68 centimeters. The muzzle, lips and eyelids are bald. The most common color of this animal is brown, but gray and black colors are also found. Juveniles are all light colored.
The head is long and narrow. Most of it is occupied by a tube-shaped muzzle, and the rest of the space is comfortably occupied by small eyes and equally small ears. The mouth, located at the very end of the muzzle, has no teeth, and it doesn’t need them. Its diet is based on ants, termites, their larvae and various caterpillars. But getting to them is not easy. We all know that many termite mounds and anthills have strong walls and not everyone can destroy them. But for the giant anteater this is not particularly difficult. For this purpose, nature awarded him with sharp and long claws.
The front paws have 4 toes with claws, the length of which varies from 1 to 6.5 centimeters. Walking on the ground with such claws is not very convenient, so when walking and at rest, the animal presses its long claws to the pads (similar to how we put our fingers on our palm) and steps on the ground not with the flat side of the foot, but with the side. He even has a large callus in this place. The hind limbs, unlike the forelimbs, are five-fingered. Here the claws are not so long. Their length is only 1-2 centimeters.
Having destroyed the impregnable ant (termite) fortress, the anteater falls to the resulting hole with its narrow muzzle and begins to eat. He sticks his thin, long, and also sticky, tongue into all sorts of nooks and crannies of the anthill, pulling out hundreds of glued-on insects with it.
The tongue of this animal works with amazing speed. In a minute, a large anteater throws it out and retracts it about 160 times. He can eat up to 30,000 of these insects per day! The length of its tongue reaches 61 centimeters, which is a record for land animals. In addition to ants and termites, he will gladly taste berries, woodlice, centipedes and other small insect-like living creatures.
Since anteaters do not have teeth in their mouths, they are “located” in its stomach, where still living insects fall directly from the mouth. The anteater's stomach is very muscular and has a hard, keratinized lining on its walls. Plus, small pebbles and sand that get into the stomach along with the prey are added to this. They just help grind and crush swallowed insects and berries. Sharp keratinized spines on the palate and folds on the cheeks prevent the insects from getting back out.
Giant anteaters are solitary by nature, but there are also pairs. But they do not consist of a male and a female, but of a female and a cub. They move slowly, so catching up with them will not be difficult. He rarely runs away; in cases of danger, it is easier for him to take a fight than to flee, since he simply cannot escape. When attacked, the anteater takes a defensive “stance”: it stands on hind legs and sit bones, and puts the front bones forward towards the enemy. With them, he is capable of causing serious injuries to a small predator. Therefore, even such natural enemies like the jaguar or puma, rarely choose to associate with this animal. Hunting these animals is not particularly popular among local residents. But even despite this, the number of these extraordinary animals is decreasing every year. The giant anteater is now listed as endangered by the IUCN.
Perhaps one of the reasons for this sad trend is the low birth rate of these animals. The mating season occurs 2 times a year - in spring and autumn. Pregnancy lasts about six months. Only one cub is born, all covered with hair and weighing about 1.5-1.7 kilograms. They become independent when they reach two years of age. Before this, they relentlessly follow their mother.
Female giant anteaters are very caring mothers. Some time after birth, the baby independently climbs onto the mother’s back and begins to travel with her. Here it is almost invisible, since its pattern merges with the pattern on the mother’s body. When he reaches the age of one month, he begins to walk on his own, not one step behind his mother.
You have a chance to meet this amazing ancient animal,
The uniqueness of the animal world never ceases to amaze. One of the most amazing animals is ant-eater.
The anteater belongs to the family of mammals, the order of edentates. This is how dryly it is written about him in encyclopedic sources. This is an interesting animal to which our perception is still unusual. Its habitat is forests and savannas of the South and Central.
For active work The anteater prefers the night, and during the day it sleeps, covering itself with its tail and curling up into a ball. Anteaters of small species climb trees to avoid falling into the clutches of predators, while large or giant anteaters settle directly on the ground. He is not afraid of attack, because he can easily defend himself with powerful paws with claws that reach 10 cm.
Appearance This animal is very peculiar. Powerful paws, a small, elongated head, small eyes, ears are also small, but the muzzle is long, ending in a tiny mouth with no teeth.
The anteater has no teeth, but nature has provided it with a powerful and long tongue that exceeds the size of the tongues of a giraffe and even an elephant. The tongue is narrow - no more than a centimeter, anteater tongue length- 60 centimeters, which is almost half of the animal’s entire body (without the tail). The end of the tongue grows from the sternum. Not only that, salivary glands moisten the tongue and give it incredible stickiness.
And this powerful organ moves at the greatest speed - up to 160 times per minute. Horny bristles, which cover the entire palate of the animal, help it scrape insects off its tongue.
The stomach is muscular, processes food with the help of small pebbles and sand, which the anteater specially swallows. The tongue is sticky, sticky, and all the small insects that the anteater hunts instantly stick to it.
And the main menu of this beast is ants and termites. However, anteater animal not capricious. In the absence of anthills and termite mounds, it easily absorbs larvae, centipedes, worms, and even just berries, which it picks off not with its tongue, but with its lips.
Anteaters are mainly divided into three types:
- Large anteater (giant) - the length of its body reaches 130 cm,
– Medium (tamandua) – from 65-75 cm,
— Dwarf (silk) – up to 50 cm.
Large giant anteater
This is the most big representative all anteaters. Its tail alone reaches a length of at least a meter. Its front paws are equipped with four toes with terrifying claws. It is because of the claws that the anteater has such a gait - it has to rely only on the outer side of the wrist, and tuck its claws.
Therefore, the anteater runner is quite weak. It is easier for an anteater to engage in a fight than to flee. To intimidate the enemy, the animal takes a “stand” - stands on its hind legs and threateningly raises its front legs forward. With its clawed paws it is capable of causing serious injuries.
The giant's fur is very hard and varies in length on all parts of the body. It is too short on the head, longer on the body, and reaches 45 cm on the tail. Great anteater lives only in South America. He is attracted to deserted places, where he is active at any time of the day, but when in the vicinity of a person he tries to come out of hiding only at night.
The huge, clawed paws of the anteater help it break through termite mounds and rake anthills, which it feeds on. Mating seasons anteaters have two - in spring and autumn, after which the female gives birth to one cub weighing 1.5 - 1.7 kg. She carries it for about six months, but little anteaters become independent only after two years. All this time they are with their mother.
Average anteater - tamandua
Tamandua is a special genus of anteater because it has 4 toes on its forelimbs and five on its hind limbs. He prefers to live in trees, because his length barely reaches 60 cm, with a tail - 100 cm.
It is half the size of its giant relative, although it is very similar to it, differing only in its tail. Its tail is thick and strong, facilitating tree climbing. The coat color of the southeastern tamandua is usually white-yellow, with a black back (as if wearing a T-shirt), a black muzzle and rings around the eyes.
The cubs are completely white and yellow in color; only by the end of the second year do they begin to acquire the color of an adult animal. And representatives of the north-west have a monochromatic color - gray-white, black or brown.
This anteater settles in the same countries where the giant one, but its range is slightly larger, reaching Peru. Prefers wooded areas, in bushes and even on the edges. It can be found both on the ground and in trees, where it climbs to sleep.
When laying down to sleep, it hooks its tail onto a branch, curls up into a ball and covers its muzzle with its paws. Tamandua feeds on ants mostly those that live in trees. It is curious that when excited, this animal spreads a very unpleasant, strong smell.
Pygmy anteater (silk)
This anteater is the complete opposite of its larger brother. Its body length is only 40 cm including tail. This animal also has a long muzzle and a strong, strong tail - after all, it has to live in trees all the time. Its fur is golden and silky, which is why the dwarf anteater was nicknamed silk.
Despite their small sizes, this animal is a worthy “fighter”; it meets its enemies with a fighting stance and attacks with its front, clawed paws. And yet, he has enough enemies, so the animal only leads night look life and does not descend to earth.
Pairs are formed only for the period of mating and raising offspring. After the first few days that the cub spends in the hollow, he is transferred to the back of his father or mother.
Both male and female raise the young with equal care. These interesting representatives Anteaters of different species are both similar and different from each other. An anteater like a nambat is very curious, or marsupial anteater.
Marsupial anteater and its features
The marsupial anteater belongs to the order of predatory marsupials. He lives in. Animals from Western Australia have black stripes on their backs, while those from Eastern Australia have a more uniform color. This is a small animal, whose length does not exceed 27 cm, and its weight does not exceed 550 grams. the muzzle is elongated, pointed, the tongue is long and thin.
But, unlike other anteaters, they have teeth. Moreover, this animal is one of the most toothy predators on earth - it has up to 52 teeth. True, he cannot boast of the quality of his teeth - his teeth are small, weak, and asymmetrical. The eyes and ears are large, paws with sharp claws.
Interestingly, “marsupial” is not quite the correct name. The nambat does not have a pouch, and the cubs, of which the female brings 2 or 4, attach their mouths to the nipples and hang there. This amazing feature, which no other animal can boast of.
Anteater as a pet
This animal is so interesting that many lovers of the unusual keep it at home. As a rule, tamanduas are started. Anteaters are very smart, their owners manage to teach their pets some commands, they even manage to open the refrigerator themselves.
And, of course, you shouldn’t upset them at all, otherwise the pet will be forced to defend itself. To prevent his claws from being so dangerous, it is recommended to trim them twice a week.
It is known that Salvador Dali, after reading Andre Breton’s poem “After the Giant Anteater,” became so interested in the anteater that he even kept one in his home.
He walked him on the streets of Paris on a golden leash and even went with his pet to social events. Anteater Dali considered a romantic animal. Anteaters are extraordinary animals. It is very sad that their numbers are only decreasing every year.
The fauna of South America is unique in many ways. The great anteater is one of the most prominent representatives South American fauna. Nowadays, the family of anteaters (Myrmecophagidae) includes three species: the genus Tamandua with two species - the South American, or northern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) and the Mexican, or southern tamandua (Tamandua mexicana) and the genus Mymecophaga with the only kind- a large or giant anteater, which is also called the three-toed anteater, or tamanuar (Mymecophaga tridactyla). In addition to this, there is also a family of dwarf anteaters (Cyclopedidae) with unique gender(Cyclopes) and a species of pygmy anteater ( Cyclopes didactylus), which were previously also placed in the family Myrmecophagidae. All anteaters are endemic to South America, with the exception of the Mexican tamandua and the pygmy anteater, which are also found in Central America.
The great anteater is the largest modern edentate (superorder Xenarthra), surpassing in size even the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus). The weight of large anteaters ranges from approximately 18 to 40 kg, but in exceptional cases more. There are references to some individuals reaching approximately 65 kg in weight. Males slightly larger than females. These animals have great physical strength, which is due to the lifestyle of the anteater (termite mound collapse).
Of the anteater's senses, the sense of smell is the most developed, thanks to which it can not only detect ants, but also distinguish between their types, avoiding the most aggressive of them. The hearing and vision of the large anteater are rather mediocrely developed.
Due to the nature of its feeding, the anteater has no teeth at all; its skull is very narrow and long, tube-shaped. The zygomatic arches are reduced and not closed. Unlike the vast majority of mammals, which have 7 cervical vertebrae, in the anteater their number ranges from 6 to 9. The tongue is thin, sticky and very long. A special case attached to the sternum allows for very rapid protrusion of the tongue, which collects many insects. At the same time, the anteater produces large number saliva (the salivary glands of the anteater are very well developed). As mentioned above, the anteater is completely devoid of teeth. The horny papillae that cover the palate and inner side cheeks In addition, the anteater has a muscular stomach, especially in the peloric section, where the grinding of food is completed.
The testes of the male are not carried into the scrotum, but are located intraperitoneally (as, for example, in armadillos, elephants, cetaceans and some other mammals). Excretory and reproductive system Anteaters open with one hole, which is not typical for mammals. Thus, anteaters form a kind of cloaca. Females of the great murayed have two pairs of nipples (abdominal and pectoral).
Despite his scientific name- Mymecophaga tridactyla, which means three-toed anteater, this type has five toes on each paw, but only four toes armed with claws are visible on the front paws. The claws on the front paws are exceptionally well developed and very strong. The largest claw is located on the third finger, and the smallest on the first. With the help of its large claws and powerful paws, the anteater, in search of food, destroys termite mounds, anthills, turns over stones or defends itself (for example, from hunting dogs). When an anthill (and even more so a termite mound) is destroyed, heavy loads are placed on the lower back of the anteater. In this regard, the anteater has additional articulations between the lumbar vertebrae, called xenanthrols. The hind limbs of the anteater are semi-plantigrade, while with the forelimbs it rests on the back of the hand (due to hypertrophied claws), such as apes.
The tail is long and very fluffy. It can serve either as additional support for the animal during the collapse of anthills, or as a kind of blanket when the animal is sleeping. The color of the large anteater is very specific. The characteristic black stripes running from the base of the head and chest along the sides of the animal seem to dismember its appearance and thus it is very difficult to determine the true size of the animal and its position from a distance.
The giant anteater leads a solitary lifestyle, except for the mating period. Animals find each other by the smell of glandular secretions, as well as saliva. However, giant anteaters are quite docile animals and in captivity, as a rule, do not show aggression to each other. Typically, anteaters are diurnal, but in places where people hunt them, they become predominantly nocturnal.
A female anteater usually gives birth to one baby once or twice a year. Pregnancy lasts about 190 days. From birth, the cub climbs onto its mother’s back, where it clings to her fur with its claws. A four-week-old cub is already able to run normally, but continues to ride on its mother’s back for up to a year. Giant anteaters reach sexual maturity between two and a half and four years.
Taxonomy:
Superkingdom: Eukaryota (eukaryotes, or nuclear)
Kingdom: Animalia (animals)
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa (eumetazoans, or true multicellular organisms)
Subsection: Bilateria (bilaterally symmetrical, or bilateral)
Superphylum: Deuterostomia (deuterostomes)
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata (vertebrates)
Infratype: Gnathostomata (gnathostomes)
Superclass: Tetrapoda (tetrapods)
Class: Mammalia (mammals, or animals)
Subclass: Theria (viviparous mammals, or true beasts)
Infraclass: Eutheria ( placental mammals, or higher beasts)
Superorder: Xenarthra (incomplete edentates, or xenarthra)
Order: Pilosa (anteaters and sloths)
Suborder: Vermilingua (anteaters)
Family: Myrmecophagidae (anteaters)
Genus: Myrmecophaga (great or giant anteaters)
Species: Myrmecophaga tridactyla (large, giant, or three-toed anteater, or tamanuar)
Habitat:
The animal anteater belongs to the class of mammals of the anteater family, the order of edentates. This family includes two genera (giant and four-toed anteaters), three species (giant, four-toed and Mexican tamanduas) and eleven subspecies. Representatives of species and subspecies differ from each other, but there are also general characteristics, inherent in all animals.
Anatomy of an anteater
Animals of this family have an elongated body, the head and especially the nose are strongly elongated, the tip of the nose is narrow and tube-shaped, the eyes and ears are small, the body length is from 20 to 120 cm, the tail is about 90 cm, with its help animals can climb trees. The absence of teeth in anteaters is compensated by a long, muscular tongue with sharp spines; in giant anteaters its length is 50-70 cm. The animal's skeleton consists of caudal, sacral, lumbar and dorsal vertebrae. Wide ribs overlapping each other are attached to the dorsal vertebrae. Fine developed sense of smell helps in searching for prey.
Family: Anteaters
Class: Mammals
Order: Incomplete edentates
Type: Chordata
Kingdom: Animals
Domain: Eukaryotes
Where does the anteater live?
Anteaters love warmth, so their habitat is the countries of South America and Mexico. Representatives of this family prefer tropical forests and savannas with abundant vegetation
What does an anteater eat?
IN natural conditions Representatives of the anteater family feed on termites and ants, whose homes they destroy with their strong front paws, and collect scattered insects with their sticky tongue. Less likely to eat others small insects, larvae and berries. In captivity they can eat fruits, meat, eggs, which need to be crushed, since the animal has no teeth and a very small mouth
Anteater lifestyle
Animals are active at dusk and at night. Giant anteaters lead a terrestrial lifestyle, dwarf anteaters lead an arboreal lifestyle, and four-legged anteaters lead a terrestrial-arboreal lifestyle.
Reproduction of anteaters
Anteaters live alone and only in mating season in spring and autumn they unite in pairs to conceive offspring, after which the male leaves the female. Gestation of the cub lasts from 3 to 6 months, depending on the species. The female brings one cub once a year and raises it until the next pregnancy, sometimes until the age of two. Carries the baby on her back.
Anteaters - unusual animals with quite strange appearance, significantly inferior in popularity to other animal species. There are only four species of anteaters: giant, four-toed, tamandua and dwarf, all of them are united in the family Anteater in the order Inferior. Accordingly, the only relatives of anteaters are armadillos and sloths, although outwardly these animals are completely different from each other.
Four-toed anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla).
The sizes of anteaters vary over a very wide range. Thus, the largest giant anteater is simply huge, its body length can reach 2 m, of which almost half is the tail, it weighs 30-35 kg. The tiniest dwarf anteater has a body length of only 16-20 cm and weighs about 400 g. Tamandua and the four-toed anteater have a body length of 54-58 cm and weigh 3-5 kg.
The head of anteaters is relatively small, but the muzzle is very elongated, so its length can reach 20-30% of the body length. The muzzle of anteaters is very narrow, and the jaws are fused together so that the anteater practically cannot open its mouth. Essentially, the anteater's face resembles a pipe, at the end of which there are nostrils and a tiny mouth opening. On top of that, anteaters are completely devoid of teeth, but long tongue stretches the entire length of the muzzle, and the muscles with which it is attached are unprecedentedly powerful - the muscles that control the tongue are attached to the sternum! The giant anteater's tongue is 60 cm long and is considered the longest of all land animals.
A baby giant anteater, sitting on its mother's back, stuck out its long tongue. In terms of flexibility and mobility, the tongue of anteaters can be compared to that of a snake.
The eyes and ears of anteaters are small, the neck medium length, but it seems shorter because it is not very flexible. The paws are strong and end in powerful claws. Only these claws, long and curved like hooks, remind us of the relationship of anteaters with sloths and armadillos. The tail of these animals is long, and in the giant anteater it is completely inflexible and is directed all the time parallel to the surface of the earth, while in other species it is muscular and tenacious; with its help the anteaters move through the trees. Wool tree species the anteater's is short, while the giant anteater's is long and very tough. Especially long wool on the tail, which gives the giant anteater's tail a broom-like appearance. The color of the giant anteater is brown, the front legs are lighter colored (sometimes almost white), and a black stripe stretches from the chest to the back. The remaining species of anteaters are colored in contrasting yellowish-brown and white tones; the color of the tamandua looks especially bright.
The plump bright orange paw pads of the pygmy anteater (Cyclopes didactylus)
Anteaters, like other representatives of the order Incomplete-toothed, live exclusively in America. The largest range of the giant and dwarf anteaters is found in Central and most of South America. Tamandua lives only in central South America - Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The northernmost species is the four-toed anteater, whose range extends from Venezuela north to Mexico inclusive. The giant anteater inhabits grassy plains (pampas), while other species are closely associated with trees and therefore live in sparse forests. The rhythm of life of these animals is unhurried. Most of the time they walk on the ground in search of food, simultaneously turning over stones, snags, and stumps along the way. Because of their long claws, anteaters cannot rest on the entire plane of their paws, so they place them slightly obliquely, and sometimes rest on the back of the hand. All types of anteaters (except the giant one) easily climb trees, clinging with clawed paws and holding on with a tenacious tail. In the crowns they examine the bark in search of insects.
These animals are more active in dark time days. Anteaters go to sleep, curled up and covering themselves with their tails, and small species try to choose more secluded places, and a giant anteater can sleep without hesitation in the middle of a bare plain - this giant has no one to fear. In general, anteaters are not very smart (the intelligence of all edentates is poorly developed), but nevertheless in captivity they like to play with each other, starting clumsy fights. In nature, anteaters live alone and rarely meet each other.
The giant anteaters at the zoo were having a friendly romp.
Anteaters feed exclusively on insects and not all of them, but only the smallest species - ants and termites. This selectivity is due to the lack of teeth: since the anteater cannot chew food, it swallows insects whole, and in the stomach they are digested by very aggressive gastric juice. In order for food to be digested faster, it must be small enough, so large insects anteaters don't eat. However, the anteater makes the work of its stomach easier by partially grinding or crushing insects against hard palate at the moment of swallowing. Since the food of anteaters is small, they are forced to absorb it in large quantities, therefore they are in continuous search. Anteaters move like living vacuum cleaners, tilting their heads to the ground and continuously sniffing out and drawing everything edible into their mouths (their sense of smell is very acute). Possessing disproportionately great strength, they noisily turn over snags, and if they encounter a termite mound on their way, they cause real destruction in it. With powerful claws, anteaters destroy the termite mound and quickly lick termites from the surface. During the feast, the anteater's tongue moves at tremendous speed (up to 160 times per minute!), which is why it has such powerful muscles. Insects stick to the tongue thanks to sticky saliva, the salivary glands also reach huge size and are attached to the sternum, like the tongue.
A pair of giant anteaters explore the area in search of food.
Mating in giant anteaters occurs twice a year - in spring and autumn, other species mate more often in autumn. Since anteaters live alone, there is rarely more than one male near one female, which is why marriage rituals these animals do not. The male finds the female by smell; anteaters are silent and do not give special calling signals. Pregnancy lasts from 3-4 (for the dwarf) to 6 months (for the giant anteater). The female, standing, gives birth to one calf, rather small and naked, which independently climbs onto her back. From that moment on, she carries it on herself all the time, and the cub tenaciously clings to her back with its clawed paws. At the giant anteater little cub It is generally difficult to detect because it is buried in the mother's coarse fur. Tamandua females often, while feeding on a tree, place the baby on some branch; after completing all her work, the mother takes the baby and goes down. Baby anteaters spend time with their mother long time: for the first month they are inseparably on her back, then they begin to descend to the ground, but remain associated with the female for up to two years! It is not uncommon to see a female anteater carrying a “baby” almost equal in size to her on her back. Puberty different types reach in 1-2 years. Giant anteaters live up to 15 years, tamanduas - up to 9.
A female giant anteater with a baby on her back.
In nature, anteaters have few enemies. In general, only jaguars dare to attack large giant anteaters, but this animal has a weapon against predators - claws up to 10 cm long. In case of danger, the anteater falls on its back and begins to clumsily swing all four paws. The external absurdity of this behavior is deceptive; the anteater can cause severe wounds. Small species more vulnerable, they can be attacked in addition to jaguars large boas and eagles, but these animals also defend themselves with their claws. In addition to turning over on their back, they can sit on their tail and fight off with their paws, and the pygmy anteater does the same thing while hanging on its tail from a tree branch. And tamandua is used as additional protection also bad smell, for this, local residents even nicknamed him “the forest stink.”
Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana) in a defensive pose.
All species of anteaters are low-fertile by nature and very dependent on specific food sources, so these animals have difficulty restoring their numbers in places where they are exterminated. Locals These animals have always been hunted for meat, so the giant anteater is already listed in the Red Book as endangered. However, greatest danger for them it is not hunters who represent, but the destruction of natural habitats. Anteaters are also not often seen in zoos, perhaps due to the low public interest in the little-known animal. At the same time, keeping these animals in captivity turned out to be surprisingly easy. Gourmet anteaters in captivity easily switch to food that is unusual for them - they happily eat not only insects, but also minced meat, berries, fruits, and especially love... milk.
A zookeeper feeds termites to an anteater from a special container.