My Pet Anteater

They're back and I hate them so much. I'm the kind of person who always, without exception, wakes up in a good mood ready to each day with high expectations. They are spoiling my mornings.

By habit, first thing every morning, I routinely stumble to the sliding glass door to let the dog out. I'm wise to the bladder woes of a fourteen-year-old beagle. Being house-broken only applies at her age, to her people not turning their backs even for a moment on her. She no longer feels the need to "tell us."

Feeling something not quite right, my fingers immediately recoil in wide-awake terror. The handle slot to the sliding glass door is filled with writhing mean little buggers. In a panic, I try to brush them off before they bite me. The almost constant warfare between me and of the fire ants begins again.

"Hold on Beauty! Cross your little doggy legs, " I holler, as I dash across the house for the ant spray. I knew from the strained worried look on her face, however, that I'll have more than an extermination problem by the time I returned.

Why Ant Eaters Might Become A Pet Choice

After cleaning up both messes, I sit down to my breakfast and find myself lost in memories of northern Brazil about ten years ago. It was a vacation from reality to remember for a lifetime.

This part of Brazil is the least inhabited portion of the country by people, yet non-human life abounds in such abundance, that it makes it hard to describe. Still at the same time, many of these animals, insects, plants, and trees are endangered and near extinction.

We'd been sitting with our native guide for quite a while watching an ant-bear. The country was an open savanna, with only but here and there, a small tree or two. The termites in this section build their nests in colonies.

As we were passing through a colony of the termite nests, most of which, were about as high as my husband's head (he's six foot-five inches tall). We noticed the tail of a great ant eater sticking out from behind a termite hill about one hundred feet away.

We all stopped behind another hill for concealment. The sun was just beginning to set.

The next thing we knew, the ant eater came out and moved to another nest. With its great claws it would tear open a section of the hill and then insert its long tongue.

After a moment or two of eating, it would tear away more of the nest with three or four powerful strokes of its claws. Then, it would again eat.

In this manner, it moved from nest to nest until finally it came to the hill next to the one against which we were leaning, not fifteen feet away. We watched in awe of its long tongue working, and also the sheer amount of saliva that was forming a foam at its mouth.

By this time, it was almost dark, and as the ant eater turned, it sensed the presence of strangers staring at it.

We could see the end of its nose working, confused as if it couldn't quite identify the smell. It kept trying to smell the slight breeze. Suddenly, it turned around and started off in a trot.

Bill, of course, ran off after it. The ant bear broke into a gallop. Bill even with his long legs, could just barely keep up with it.

Abruptly, it stopped and so did my beloved, with his usual wild-eyed Cheshire cat grin, just as swiftly changing direction to a worried frown of "now what?"

I think that's when he remembered that a giant ant eater (ant bear) can do great damage with its long claws.

I never knew Bill could run so fast. Neither did his size seventeen hiking boots. To his relief, after a few moments chase, the animal turned and galloped off never to be seen again by us.

On Second Thought No Pet Ant Eaters For Bill

There are three kinds of ant eaters, all natives of the tropical Americas. Strange as it may seem, they are distantly related to the sloths, some of the extinct ground sloths proving this relationship.

Ant eaters have an elongated head and a long worm like tongue. They have no teeth.

On their front feet they have strong claws for tearing into the nests of ants and termites.

The largest of the ant eaters is the great ant eater, also called the ant bear. It is an animal about two feet high. The length of its head and body is about four and a half feet. It has an exceedingly bushy tail that is about two feet long, not including the hair. The ears are small. The head alone may be as much as seventeen inches long.

In color, the ant bear is gray and black. The forelegs are mostly black. A broad, black band, bordered with white, extends from the throat up over the shoulders.

The most noteworthy characteristics of the animal are its very long head and the long, plume like tail. Some of the hairs on this tail are over fifteen inches long.

This animal does not live in burrows, but rests curled up on its side with its tail spread over it, hidden aways in tall grasses or bushes. It frequents open savannas or forests. It is found from Guatemala southward, throughout tropical Central and South America.

The ant bear spends its time on the ground and through most authorities claim that it never climbs trees, there have been authentic cases which prove that it sometimes but rarely, can and does.

It feeds on ants and termites, chiefly during the evening, or at night.

The tamandua is only about half the sze of the great ant eater. It is a very different looking animal, with short hair and an almost naked tail. In general color it is buffy white, with a broad black band, extending from the neck along the sides.

Some species ahve very little of this black, while in others it takes up most of the body.

This animal has a much shorter head and longer ears than the great ant eater. It also has a prehensile, or grasping tail.

It lives both on the ground and in trees, but seems to prefer the trees.

It feeds chiefly on the termites which build their nests among the branches. It is found as far north as Mexico and ranges south, throughout Central and South America.

The third and last form of ant eater is the silky, or two-toed ant eater. This little fellow is only about fifteen inches long, about half the length being tail.

The two-toed ant eater is covered with long, silky hair of a buffy-gray color, with a silver gloss. A narrow blackish brown line extends from the top of the head to the lower back.

This animal spends its life in the trees, feeding on primarily on ants, termites, and is said occasionally to eat other insects. Its tail is strongly prehensile.

When disturbed, it has the curious habit of grasping, with its hind feet and tail, the limb it is on and throwing itself erect, with its two front feet held up along its fact.

From this position it will strike out with its strong hooked claws.

It is a loner, that prefers the company of no one but itself. It only has one baby at a time that it hides in nests of leaves inside tree holes.

In movement this animal is slow, its motions making one think of a sloth. It moves about and feeds only at night, spending the day curled up in a ball among the branches of the tree. It is found in the forests from Mexico through tropical Central and South America.

Yes, some people do keep anteaters as exotic pets, although I would not seriously recommend it. There is even an individual who keeps an anteater as a pet websiteand posts many YouTube videos of her pet, named Pua.

While I'm frustrated with the ant problem, and thinking outside the insecticide box, I'll personally be looking for a different solution even though an anteater would probably think this house is a dream house.

I've seen them fight and attack in Brazil and Beauty has little to worry about when it comes to being replaced by an ant eater as cute and interesting as they are.