Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Pilosa > Myrmecophagidae > Myrmecophaga > Myrmecophaga tridactyla

Myrmecophaga tridactyla (Giant Anteater)

Synonyms: Myrmecophaga centralis; Tamandua tridactyla

Wikipedia Abstract

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), also known as the ant bear, is a large insectivorous mammal native to Central and South America. It is one of four living species of anteaters and is classified with sloths in the order Pilosa. This species is mostly terrestrial, in contrast to other living anteaters and sloths, which are arboreal or semiarboreal. The giant anteater is the largest of its family, 182–217 cm (5.97–7.12 ft) in length, with weights of 33–41 kg (73–90 lb) for males and 27–39 kg (60–86 lb) for females. It is recognizable by its elongated snout, bushy tail, long fore claws, and distinctively colored pelage.
View Wikipedia Record: Myrmecophaga tridactyla

Infraspecies

Myrmecophaga tridactyla artata
Myrmecophaga tridactyla centralis
Myrmecophaga tridactyla tridactyla

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Myrmecophaga tridactyla

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
16
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
53
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 32.3
EDGE Score: 4.2
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  62.832 lbs (28.50 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  3.527 lbs (1.60 kg)
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates)
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  3 years 3 months
Male Maturity [1]  3 years 3 months
Gestation [1]  6 months 4 days
Litter Size [1]  1
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  31 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  4.953 feet (151 cm)
Weaning [1]  56 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Atlantic Forest Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay No
Cerrado Brazil No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No
Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru No

Prey / Diet

Atta sexdens (leaf cutter ant)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Elanoides forficatus (Swallow-tailed Kite)1
Thecadactylus rapicauda (Turniptail Gecko)1

Predators

Desmodus rotundus (vampire bat)[4]
Panthera onca (Jaguar)[4]
Puma concolor (Cougar)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Animals of the Rainforest
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 7International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0