Downsizing: Lesser in name only

The Lesser Anteater, or Southern Tamandua, Tamandua tetradactyla, also lives in Brazil. They are mainly nocturnal, and on my last trip I just glimpsed one on a night drive. But this time, we got lucky. Strolling in the long grass near the trail was a lovely black-and-tan shape.

It ambled across the track:

Just like the Greater Anteater, its main diet is ants, and it has four huge front claws (the Greater Anteater has three) for tearing apart those termite mounds:

They are rather impressive, so much so that they force it to walk on the sides of its feet:

In closeup, you can see that the thickened skin of the footpad is on the side of the front foot, not u derneath:

In the daytime, it sleeps high in the trees. At first glance, we thought this blob was a nest of some sort,

but then we realized it was something much better: a slumbering tamandua:

Considering that it can weigh up to 19lbs (though 10lbs is more typical), it is astonishing that it can hang on up there. Its body is up to 3ft long, plus another 2ft of prehensile, partly bare, tail, which you can see curled around the branch here:

This short video is the closest to an action shot I have!

These anteaters also feed in the trees, eating the species of aboreal termite that builds these big nests:

It shares with the Greater Anteater the charming habit of carrying its baby on its back, though we didn’t see this.

However, a friend of mine, Anne Mansbridge, photographed a Northern Tamandua mother and baby in a tree in Costa Rica. Lucky her, and thankyou for the photo.

The Southern Tamandua range covers much of South America from Venezuela down to Southern Brazil, and they are not considered endangered, I’m happy to say.