An ant- and termite-eating mammal with a long narrow snout and a large bushy tail.
Black and white stripes mark the shoulders, and the tail carries dense, long, coarse hair.
Giant anteaters in Brazil’s Pantanal change when they move as conditions become warmer or colder. They are more active at night in warm weather and shift toward daytime activity in cold weather. Their forest selection also changes: they tend to select forests during hot daylight hours and cold nights.
A 2023 paper analyzed location records from fourteen adults tracked in 2013–2017: six males and eight females. Individual records lasted 51–509 days. Researchers used distances and turning angles between recorded locations to infer moving and relatively stationary periods, then examined their relationships with air temperature and forest use.
As temperatures decreased, overall daily activity became shorter, while the proportion occurring during daylight increased and nighttime forest selection became stronger. The authors interpreted these patterns as taking advantage of daytime solar warmth and resting in forest shelter. Even an animal that forages in open grasslands benefits from nearby forests as refuges from heat and cold.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Clinical records for 63 giant anteaters received by the Federal University of Uberlândia between January 2016 and February 2020 identified road accidents as the most common reason for rescue. The 2023 retrospective study highlighted the need for measures to reduce human-caused mortality. Separately, the authors of the Pantanal movement study recommended prioritizing forest conservation because forests provide shelter from both heat and cold.