Healthy giant anteater given birth at ZooParc Overloon

dIn ZooParc Overloon, a healthy giant anteater has been born. Mother Tousle gave birth in the night from Thursday to Friday after a gestation of about six months. The sex of the young animal is not yet known.

Whether the giant anteater was pregnant, animal keepers were not sure for a long time. Animal keeper Max Kronier: "Giant anteaters live solitary, which means they prefer to live alone unless the female is fertile. The mother is a bit older, but still we put her with the male and we have seen mating. The giant anteater's fur is very thick. So it was a bit of a wait and see if she was pregnant. At some point she did get visibly thicker, then it becomes a matter of wait and see!"

Extraordinary skull
The skull of the giant anteater is in the shape of a cylinder, unlike other animal species: the species has no jaws and therefore no teeth. Kronier: "The anteaters have sharp claws that allow the animal to break open termite nests. Then, with its sticky and long tongue of sixty centimeters, it eats the nest empty."

Drinking breast milk, on the other hand, is no different from other animal species. "The mouth just fits around the mother's nipple," Kronier said.

Camouflage
Young anteaters crawl on the mother's back immediately after birth. The newborn has the same stripe on its back as the mother. "In the wild, this camouflage allows the young to go undetected by predators," Kronier said.

Despite its camouflage, the giant anteater does not fare well in the wild. The species lives in South America, both on dry savannas and in rainforests. The IUCN Red List tracks how species are doing in the wild. The anteater's status is "vulnerable. This means that if no action is taken to remove threats to the species, it is at high risk of extinction.

Loss of habitat is one of the biggest threats to the species. The animals face forest fires, for example, with dire consequences. Logging often drives the animals out of habitat only to be hit in the search for other habitat.

To prevent the species from becoming extinct, zoos maintain a healthy reserve population through the European management program. Tousle has already raised three healthy sons within this management program.

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