anteater

may refer to any of a number of ant-eating mammals, mostly of the American tropics: the ant bear or great anteater, /Myrmecophaga jubata/, a large animal with elongated head and snout; the silky or two-toed anteater, /Cyclopes didactylus/, a rat-sized arboreal creature with a prehensile tail; the tamandua, /Tamandua tetradactyla/, fairly similar except in having more toes; the aardvark, /Orycteropus afer/, a large burrowing African animal; the pangolin or scaly anteater, /Pangolin ssp./, of Africa and Asia, having overlapping horny scales; the echidna or spiny anteater, /Tachyglossus ssp./, of Australia; the banded anteater, /Myrmecobius fasciatus/, an Australian termite-eater which is now nearly extinct.