The giant ant eaters 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 um very subject to becoming endangered. Uh We
currently have two giant anteater here at the Reed Park
Zoo. First, we have Nico 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 Reed 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 ant eaters are fed every day in insect
or pellet diet, which is a pellet form that
encompasses the nutrients that they would receive in the wild
and they absolutely love avocado. The anteater 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 to 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 gotta 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 back
. 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 ant eaters 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 call right away
once they get into it. The best part about
working with ant eaters is their personalities that they are
so different and 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 gonna get out of bed
is they have this big yawn and 18 inches of
that tongue slurps out of their mouth and slips right
back in