Tamandua Monday
Collared Anteater
At 5:15 AM, on the way to breakfast, I noticed some of our group was out in the field.
But they weren’t watching birds…
A Collared Anteater, also known as the Southern Tamandua, was out hunting for ants.
Can you stand the cuteness?!
It would stick its snout into ant nests,
and using its barbed, 40 cm tongue, start slurping up ants through its pencil-diameter mouth.
As you can see, the ants were not pleased.
Up came the front paw, armed with sharp claws for digging into ant nests and termite mounds
to brush away those pesky ants.
This went on, over and over.
Watch here!
And then…
Southern Tamandua or Collared Anteater Tamandua tetradactyla 60 cm/23.6” body, 35-59 cm/13.8-23.2” tail
Pousada Aguapé, Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
September 30, 2025
Video credit: Jonathan
Those two anteater species were absolutely some of the coolest animals I've ever seen.