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Silky anteaters are the smallest living anteaters. They have dense and soft fur, which ranges from grey to yellowish in color, with a silvery sheen. Many subspecies have darker, often brownish, streaks, and paler underparts or limbs. The eyes are black, and the soles of the feet are red. Silky anteaters have partially prehensile tails.
Description. Silky anteaters are the smallest living anteaters and have proportionately shorter faces and larger crania than other species. Adults have a total length ranging from 36 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in), including a tail 17 to 24 cm (6.7 to 9.4 in) long, and weigh from 175 to 400 g (6.2 to 14.1 oz).
- Tropical forests above 1,500m
- Central and South America
- 2 years
- 55-70cm long, including tail
- They’re the smallest anteater in the world. Silky anteaters are the tiniest anteater species in the world, which is why there are often referred to as the pygmy anteater.
- They’ve got no teeth! A silky anteater can cover some serious foraging ground in an evening. In the course of a single night’s forage, they can cross 38 trees and eat over 5,000 ants!
- They also have a taste for wasps. Silky anteaters also love to diet on wasps and wasp pupae. They will sneakily attack a wasp nest in the middle of the night, when wasps are sluggish and more defenceless.
- They’re not the only nocturnal, tree-dwelling anteater in town. Silky anteaters are arboreal, come out at night, and live in the same areas as their larger cousins the Tamanduas, who occupy a very similar niche.
Browse 68 silky anteater photos and images available, or search for phodopus roborovskii to find more great photos and pictures. Silky Anteater in the Caroni Swamp. Silky Anteater Sleeping in the Caroni Swamp. Silky Anteater (aka Pygmy Anteater), Cyclopes didactylus. Defensive posture. Caroni swamp, Trinidad, WI. Silky Anteater in Defense Posture.
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Habitat. Cyclopes didactylus inhabits the tree Ceiba, which has large seed pods that contain masses of a silky silverish fiber. This serves as an excellent camouflage for this tiny anteater, because the sheen of the pods and the silky fur of the anteater are almost identical.
Oct 25, 2023 · Updated: October 25, 2023. Share on: Advertisement. The silky anteater ( Cyclopes didactylus ), also known as the pygmy anteater and two-toed anteater, is a furry forest-dwelling mammal of the Neotropics.
Pilosa. anteater, (suborder Vermilingua), any of four species of toothless, insect -eating mammals found in tropical savannas and forests from southern Mexico to Paraguay and northern Argentina. They are long-tailed animals with elongated skulls and tubular muzzles.
