Giant Anteater

The giant anteater is one of the most unique mammals in the world. They are the most endangered mammal in Central America, and fewer than 5,000 are thought to remain across their range.

Common Name:

Giant Anteater

Scientific Name:

Myrmecophaga tridactyla

IUCN Red List Status:

Vulnerable

Current Population: 

~5,000 (Nashville Zoo)

Weight: 

33-41 kg (73-90 lbs)

Size:

1.8-2.4 m (6-8 ft) from nose to tail

Habitats:

Wetlands, grasslands and tropical forests, as long as there is enough insect prey

Threats:

Habitat destruction, road kills, hunting, fires, feral dogs

Continent:

The Americas

GC Sites:

Sierra del Divisor National Park, Peru

Darién World Heritage Site, Panama

Partners:

Sierra del Divisor National Park: 
Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (SERNANP; the National Protected Areas Service) & Ministerio del Ambiente

Darien World Heritage Site: 
Ministerio de Ambiente (Ministry of the Environment), Panama

Shirley Binder, National Director of Protected Areas and Biodiversity at Ministerio de Ambiente

Current (orange) and historical (red) range of the giant anteater. Map courtesy IUCN Red List.

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The giant anteater is one of the most unique mammals in the Americas, and also one of the most threatened. Its range stretches frrom Honduras to northern Argentina, though fossils have been found as far north as northwestern Sonora, Mexico.

They are the largest of the four living species of anteaters, and the only member of the genus Myrmecophaga. Surprisingly, the closest living relatives to anteaters are sloths.

As their name implies, giant anteaters are insectivores that primarily eat ants and termites. Giant anteaters are virtually blind, and they find their prey using their excellent sense of smell, which is 40 times more sensitive than a human's.

They have enormous claws on their front feet that they use to tear open ant nests and termite mounds. Their sticky tongue can reach up to 45cm (18 inches), and move in and out of their mouth at a rate of almost 3 times per second. 

Did you know? A giant anteater's front claws are so big that it has to walk on its wrists.

Since they have no teeth, giant anteaters crush the insects against their palate. Their stomach also has hardened folds that constrict to grind up the insects, a process assisted by the small bits of sand and soil that the anteater ingests. Though they don't produce stomach acid, the formic acid that ants and termites secrete help with the digestion process.

Giant anteaters are mostly solitary and require large home ranges, spanning between 2.7 sq. km (667 acres) and 32.5 sq. km (8,031 acres), depending on the ecosystem.

Did you know? Mother anteaters carry their babies on their back until they are weaned.

Ecologically, giant anteaters play an important role. Not only do they help control insect numbers, but they also may dig for water when there is none available on the surface. This creates critical watering holes for other species. They are also important prey for jaguars and pumas, though with their formidable claws they are also capable of killing these cats in self-defense.

Threats

According to the IUCN Red List, giant anteaters are the most threatened manmals in Central America. They have already gone extinct in Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and Uruguay.

As with many species, habitat destruction is a major threat to giant anteaters. In addition to land use change and development, their grassland habitats are often destroyed by fires -- in particular, those set by sugar cane growers who burn their fields prior to harvest. The fires not only destroy the habitat, but also injure or kill the slow-moving anteaters. For example, in 1994, 340 anteaters were killed by wildfires at Emas National Park in Brazil.

Vehicle strikes are another major threat, and many anteaters die each year on roads. In areas near human settlements, loose or feral dogs can also kill these anteaters.

In some parts of their range, giant anteaters are hunted. In Bolivia, for example, they are hunted for sport and sustenance, while their leathery hide is used to make equestrian equipment in the Chaco region. In Venezuela, hunters target them for their claws. In still other areas, they are killed because they are perceived as dangerous; indeed, they have been known to kill people who injure or corner them.

Conservation Action

We are working hard to protect giant anteaters at our project sites in Sierra del Divisor National Park, Peru, and Darien World Heritage Site, Panama. 

In Sierra del Divisor, a newly-established 1.3-million-hectare national park along the Peru-Brazil border, more than 2,500 hectares of tree cover were destroyed between 2001 and 2014. Sierra del Divisor is threatened by logging, mining, and clearing for coca production. Unregulated commercial fishing and hunting imperil native animal populations. A proposed highway could restrict habitat, spread disease, and provide access to illegal hunters, loggers, and drug traffickers. Unchecked, these threats could destroy the area in a matter of years.

To achieve that protection, Global Conservation is coordinating with national police and marines while working with our partners in conservation—Rainforest Foundation Peru and SERNANP National Parks Peru—to develop key aspects of the Global Park Defense program.

In order to make Sierra del Divisor a conservation model for Peru, we are particularly focused on:

1. Systems and Equipment

2. Surveillance and Monitoring

3. Training and Capacity Building

4. Community Guardians

5. Carbon for Forests—Sustainable Financing

Darien World Heritage Site is the largest protected area in Central America and the Caribbean and one of the largest expanses of intact rainforest north of the Amazon. There, we have launched a Global Park Defense program to protect the forest against various threats.

Threats affecting Darién include:

• Illegal mining and land clearing

• Unauthorized settlements

• Fishing/collecting of aquatic resources

• Lack of management systems/management plan

• Armed conflict and security concerns

• Illegal activities, including extraction of timber and wildlife

• Overfishing in the lowland freshwater systems

• Threats from major infrastructure projects and major linear utilities (electric transmission corridor, ports).

With Global Park Defense, the park authority and ranger teams will have increased capacity and improved effectiveness to greatly improve park and wildlife protection, law enforcement and biodiversity monitoring. Our goal is to achieve "No Cut, No Kill" protection for the national park within 5-6 years.

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