{"id":24237,"date":"2023-01-26T10:20:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T09:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=73518"},"modified":"2023-01-26T12:36:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T11:36:00","slug":"how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue\/","title":{"rendered":"How long is an anteater\u2019s tongue?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Stuart Blackman\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 26 January 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

The giant anteater<\/a> is surely among the most eccentric-looking of animals.<\/p>\n

But it is an ecological oddity, too. As the name suggests, it is an extreme example of a large mammal that specialises in feeding on tiny prey.<\/p>\n

Little surprise that a 50kg adult must consume a lot of prey \u2013 as many as 30,000 individual ants and termites<\/a> a day, in fact.<\/p>\n

And it does so with the aid of a suite of adaptations that also contribute to its eccentric appearance.<\/p>\n

First, there are the muscular front legs tipped with fearsome hooked claws, all the better for tearing open termite mounds and ants\u2019 nests.<\/p>\n

Please note external videos may contain ads:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p>So as not to blunt their talons, giant anteaters walk on their knuckles, <a href=\"\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/facts-about-gorillas\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">gorilla<\/a>-style.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is that famously long face, which is perfect for poking around amongst the debris. This monumental snout is also built to accommodate a 60cm-long tongue that traps its victims in a coating of treacle-like saliva.<\/p>\n<p>Attached directly to the sternum at its base, the tongue is unique among mammals in lacking structural connections in the throat.<\/p>\n<p>This gives it a huge freedom of movement, allowing it to project 45cm from the mouth opening to probe deep into the labyrinthine tunnels of its prey.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main image: A giant anteater eats termites from a mound in the Brazilian Pantanal. \u00a9\u00a0Julian Gunther\/Getty<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Stuart Blackman Published: Thursday, 26 January 2023 at 12:00 am The giant anteater is surely among the most eccentric-looking of animals. But it is an ecological oddity, too. As the name suggests, it is an extreme example of a large mammal that specialises in feeding on tiny prey. Little surprise that a 50kg adult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24238,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/how-long-is-an-anteaters-tongue-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Stuart Blackman Published: Thursday, 26 January 2023 at 12:00 am The giant anteater is surely among the most eccentric-looking of animals. But it is an ecological oddity, too. As the name suggests, it is an extreme example of a large mammal that specialises in feeding on tiny prey. Little surprise that a 50kg adult…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}