A Day in the Life of Giant Anteaters at Reid Park Zoo

The giant anteaters are a large mammal that are insectivores and they are found in Central and South America. They are currently listed as vulnerable which means their populations in the wild are stable but that they are very subject to becoming in danger. We currently have two giant anteaters here at the Reid Park Zoo. First we have Niko who is 16 years old and was actually born in Germany as part of the species survival plan and then we have Zola who is six years old and she was born here at the Reid Park Zoo and she tends to be a little bit more laid back where if there's an opportunity to nap she's going to take it. The anteaters are fed every day an insectivore pellet diet which is a pellet form that encompasses the nutrients that they would receive in the wild and they absolutely love avocado. The anteaters actually do not have teeth and so we have to feed them food that they can slurp up with their tongue really well and avocado is the perfect slurping food. Just like kids anteaters do need the shower every day but unlike kids the anteaters need water in order to poop so the anteaters will always go over to water and even if they just got to put their feet in that's when they know that it's time for them to poop and then they will also take a bath in that water. Since it is very warm in South America that if there's a really nice water shower and it's still very warm out that they will go ahead and give themselves that bath but they also do love little pools of water and they will like go dunk themselves right in and start combing. One of the things we do for the showers is we bring out a hose for the anteaters and we literally mimic like a shower and we'll have it kind of spray over them and then that encourages their natural behavior of going into water and you'll literally see them start to comb right away once they get into it. The best part about working with anteaters is their personalities that they're so different they're so strong personalities and my favorite thing that they absolutely do is their yawn every morning the first thing they do when they wake up and I know they're going to get out of bed is they have this big yawn and 18 inches of that tongue slurps out of their mouth and slurps right back in.