Summary: <p>We’re not looking at just any old insectivores in this episode, we’re looking at the big three of ant-eating mammals: the giant anteater, the aardvark, and the pangolin!</p> <p>A giant anteater and baby:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-597" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/anteater.jpg" alt="" width="278" height="181"></p> <p>Teeny anteater mouth alert! Also long tongue:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-598" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/anteatermouth.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="210"></p> <p>An aardvark walking with style:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-601" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/aardvark2-300x240.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="240"></p> <p>An aardvark. Look at that tongue! And those claws!</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-596" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/aardvark-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="168"></p> <p>An Indian pangolin. Please do not eat:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-600" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/indian-pangolin-via-wikimedia-commons-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="219"></p> <p>A pangolin ball. Please do not kick:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-599" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/pangolin-ball.jpg" alt="" width="259" height="194"></p> <p><a href="http://savepangolins.org/help/">Save the Pangolins organization</a></p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week we’re going to learn about the anteater, the aardvark, and the pangolin, all of them specialized eaters of ants. Are they related? How do we tell them apart?</p> <p>The anteater is a South and Central American animal related to sloths and, more distantly, armadillos. The aardvark is an African animal related to several rodent-like animals including the golden mole, which is not a mole, and the elephant shrew, which is neither an elephant nor a shrew. Although, as it happens, the elephant shrew is actually related to the elephant. So is the aardvark, although these connections are pretty darn distant. The pangolin is an Asian and African animal that’s not very closely related to anything.</p> <p>Let’s start with the giant anteater.</p> <p>The giant anteater can grow over seven feet long if you include the tail, or more than 2 meters. It’s brown and gray with markings that look like go-faster stripes. Its head is small and elongated. You know how a cartoon character can cram its head into a bottle and its head stays bottle-shaped? It kind of looks like the giant anteater did that. Its snout is shaped like a tube, with nostrils and a tiny mouth at the end. It can’t open its jaws very far. It has a short upright mane along its spine all the way down its back, which blends with its bushy tail. Its tail is so awesomely furry that when an anteater sleeps, it covers its body with its tail like a blanket.</p> <p>Anteaters eat ants, although they also love termites and will eat other small insects and insect larvae. The giant anteater uses its massive front claws to dig into anthills. Then it flicks its tongue really fast, catching insects with a combination of tiny hooklets on the tongue and sticky saliva. An anteater’s tongue is over two feet long</p>
