Four living anteater species are recognized, ranging from the large, ground-dwelling giant anteater to the small, tree-climbing silky anteater, which is roughly the size of a squirrel and rarely descends from the canopy.
All anteaters share a similarly elongated skull and snout, adapted purely for probing into insect nests rather than chewing, and all rely on a keen sense of smell — roughly 40 times stronger than a human’s — to locate prey, since their eyesight is comparatively weak.
Most species are solitary and largely non-territorial, wandering widely through their home range and rarely encountering other anteaters outside of the breeding season.
