The fauna of the planet Earth is unique and diverse. Among the various species of animals, there are such individuals that are able to amaze the imagination with their appearance and body structure. One of these representatives of the animal world are anteaters.
The anteater belongs to the category of animals on the planet, whose food is ants. Therefore, this type of beast received such a name. Anteaters have an elongated body with a long muzzle and tail. It should be noted that the tail is half the length of the anteater's body. The animals themselves can reach impressive sizes. Their length from nose to tip of tail can be more than two meters and weigh 40 kilograms (giant anteater). However, there are also smaller individuals - dwarf anteaters.
Animals are characterized by the presence of a narrow mouth and a long tongue, which has a large number of thorns in its composition, allowing them to get food.
The extraction of ants usually occurs as follows: the anteater tries to break the ants' dwelling with its front paws, and after that, thanks to its long tongue, it gets insects that stick to the surface of the tongue. Most interesting is the fact that anteaters have no teeth. In the area of the stomach, they have growths in the form of horns, which provide grinding of food.
The search for prey is carried out only by the nasal passages, and not by the visual ones, since the animal has poorly developed vision and hearing by nature. By nature, anteaters are very kind and calm, so they can be stroked without fear. But you should be careful with his paws, since the length of the claws reaches up to 5 centimeters, and during the game the anteaters may not control their limbs and cause injury.
Some species of anteaters live in trees, so they feed on tree ants.
Animals in their natural environment can be found in Africa, South America, Australia and Oceania.