A Giant Anteater baby has made his debut at Cotswold Wildlife Park in time for World Anteater Day.
The pup, named Antony, is the third breeding success for parents Zorro and Zeta since their arrival at the Park in 2010. The park, near Burford, is one of only two zoological collections in the UK to have bred this species in the last 12 months.
Visitors can see the Anteaters in the large enclosure they share with Crested Screamers near the Children’s Farmyard. 
Anteaters are generally solitary animals, except during the mating season. After a gestation period of around 190 days, the female produces a single pup which weighs approximately 1.3kg. The female gives birth standing up and the young Anteater immediately climbs onto her back.
The young are born with a full coat of hair and adult-like markings, aligning with their mother’s camouflaging. Similar colouring helps the pup blend in so predators can’t see it.
A mother will carry the baby on her back for approximately six to nine months (until it is almost half her size). The young suckle for two to six months and become independent after roughly two years, or when the mother becomes pregnant again.
Senior Mammal Keeper Jenni Maxwell was delighted to discover the new arrival during her routine morning checks.
She said: “Zeta very proudly sat up in her bed at 7am on a Sunday morning and lifted her tail to show off her newborn pup. She is a brilliant mother, is very patient and allows the youngster to climb onto her back before making her way out of bed. Antony has a bright white stripe down his back and his tail, which is rather unusual for Anteater pups”.
The Giant Anteater is considered to be one of the most threatened mammals of Central America and is feared extinct in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Uruguay, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Giant Anteaters are listed as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. Habitat loss, roadkills, hunting and wildfires have substantially affected their population numbers over the last ten years. Scientists estimate that 5,000 individuals are left in the wild.
Giant Anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) are the largest of the four Anteater species and boast one of the most fascinating tongues in the animal kingdom. They are specialist predators of termites and ants and may consume tens of thousands of these tiny nutritious insects every day.
Anteaters are edentate animals—they have no teeth. Ant and termite nests are ripped open with their powerful claws and the tongue acts as animated flypaper. These tongues can protrude more than 2 feet (60 cm) to capture prey. Ants possess a painful sting when attacked so Anteaters have to eat quickly.
They do so by flicking their tongue up to 160 times per minute to avoid being stung. An Anteater may spend only a minute feasting on each mound. They never destroy a nest, preferring to return and feed again in the future.
The new pup isn’t the only new arrival in the Anteater enclosure. They share their home with Crested Screamers (Chauna torquate)– a large bird species with one of the most impressive calls in the bird world. Recently the adults bred for the first time in the Park’s history.
Only two other zoological collections in the UK have achieved breeding success with this species in the last 12 months. Senior Mammal Keeper Jenni adds: “Our first-time parents shared the duty of incubating the eggs for 44 days, although the male did a lot more than the female and took it very seriously.
When all four chicks hatched, they resembled bright yellow tennis balls. Now that they’re older, they are starting to look and act just like their formidable parents. In the wild they are known as “guard birds” where they will alert all other animals in their habitat of any threat nearby by a very loud tandem call, hence why they get their name “screamer”.
Due to their vocal prowess, we have named our chicks after Taylor Swift as we are big fans of the singer here at the Park. The chicks, named Taylor, Alison, Swift and Red, are now all getting their own personalities and have started helping build the nests and trying to join in with the alarm calls.
These four chicks will have increased the captive UK population by almost 20% so they are very important to the breeding programme.”
World Anteater Day is celebrated on November 19, 2024. Its aim is to raise awareness of these remarkable animals and highlight the plight they face in the wild with increasing habitat loss.
