A Tongue Built for the Job
A giant anteater's tongue can extend up to two feet from its narrow, tube-shaped mouth — remarkable given the animal has no teeth at all. Coated in thick, sticky saliva produced by unusually large salivary glands, the tongue traps ants and termites on contact as it flicks in and out of a nest, sometimes as often as 150 times per minute.
Claws That Open the Pantry
Before the tongue can go to work, an anteater's large, curved front claws tear open ant and termite mounds, which can be surprisingly tough structures built from hardened soil. A single anteater may visit dozens of separate mounds in a day, taking only a quick meal from each before moving on.
Never Overstaying at One Colony
Anteaters deliberately limit how long they feed at any single mound, usually less than a minute, both to avoid the soldier ants' painful bites and stings and to keep from wiping out any one colony completely. This grazing strategy lets the colonies recover, ensuring a steady food supply for the anteater over the long term.
Grinding Food Without Teeth
Since anteaters have no teeth to chew with, insects are ground down instead by muscular contractions in the stomach, sometimes aided by small stones and soil the animal swallows incidentally while feeding. A single giant anteater can consume as many as 30,000 ants and termites in one day.
