The pregnancy period extends to 190 days and weaning is at 6 months. The giant anteaters are basically lonely creatures and are seen together only, when they mate or when the baby is with the mother during the first year of its birth.īreeding takes place throughout the year or seasonally depending on the particular region they live in. Two years after birth the mother and baby split and do not meet each other. The offspring stays on the mother’s back till one year, and will get down only to nurse, and feed on the ants. The offspring is well developed at birth and uses its fully developed claws to climb on the backside of its mother. Egg fertilization takes place within the female and after 190 days the new offspring is born. The lifecycle of an anteater begins when the female and the male involve in sexual reproduction. The thick outer cover of anteaters helps them to avoid attacks from smaller insects. The claws are sharp, long and curved making it easy for tearing the nests of insects. The hind legs and the tail are used as tripod by the smaller tamanduas to protect themselves from predators and they are able to use the forelimbs to flail at the attackers. The huge fore claws prevent the mothers from hurting their newborns and they carry the offspring with them till they become independent. Polygynous mating usually gives rise to one offspring, but twins can also result but they are rare in occurrence. This is also seen in some species of lizards. The fertilization is by means of contact transfer and not by intromission. The females possess a pair of mammae closer to the armpit region. The presence in between the urinary bladder and the rectum makes it difficult for identifying the males. The gender specification cannot be done visually as the penis and the testes, the reproductive organs are present internally. The adult anteater males are big in size and are muscular than the female anteaters. The tongue attached to sternum moves fast and licks at the rate of 150 times in a minute. The stomach of the anteater has hardened folds that contracts to grind the prey, which is assisted by the sand and dirt that is eaten along with the insects. The side by side jaw movement enables swallowing of the food. These are used to catch the insects and hold them together with the help of huge amounts of saliva. The tongue of anteater has filiform papillae, which are in the form of tiny hooks. A giant anteater has to find at least 200 nests to meet its calorie requirements daily. The time spent by an anteater in a nest is less than a minute. To avoid the defenses seen in invertebrates like sting, jaws and other features, anteaters have taken up the method of licking up large amounts of ants and termites quickly.
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