They smell terrible but they look extremely cute. Do you know what animal this is?
Perhaps you also understand that this world still has many strange animals that few people know about. Not necessarily because they rarely appear, but sometimes because we rarely pay attention to them. For example, the two animals in the picture below, do you know which species they are?
This animal is called Tanmadua.
Maybe you’ve never heard of them before. These two creatures are Tamandua – a genus in the ant eater family.
Tamandua is a mammal in the family Myrmecophagidae, order Pilosa. To put it more simply, they are cousins of the giant ant eater, but smaller in size.
Tamandua is a relative of the giant anteater.
Basically, these two mammals are quite similar: they have an elongated tail and mouth, small eyes, and a pair of pricked ears. Their tongues are very long, can be up to 40cm. However, Tamandua is smaller, has yellow-white fur with black tips on the body, and has shorter tail feathers.
Just like its brothers, Tamandua’s main food is ants. The difference is that Tamandua can climb trees very well, searching for ant nests high up, while giant anteaters spend almost their entire lives on the ground.
Tamandua climbs trees very well.
How is it different from monkeys?
Perhaps, few animals have an excellent self-defense mechanism like the Tamandua. When they are afraid of something, they will stand on their hind legs and spread their forelimbs to become bigger. Then, depending on the opponent’s situation, they will have appropriate countermeasures.
When attacking, they will use their sharp claws and extremely strong arm muscles to… slap their opponents in the mouth. If you don’t know, this claw can be strong enough to break ice.
Tanmadua’s claws can break ice.
When they encounter larger enemies and get too close, they use “biological weapons” : a stream of thick, smelly solution will fly straight into the enemy’s nose. Until now, everyone thought that skunks were superior in this regard, but the truth is that Tamandua is 4 times smellier.
Imagine them like skunks, but four times more terrible.
Even with smaller enemies, they have appropriate countermeasures. Tamandua possesses quite thick fur and very strong skin, preventing ants or any other bugs from daring to… attitude when they search for food.
The fur is thick and the skin is hard, even if the ants want to fight it, they can’t fight it.
But as excellent as it is, the Tamandua is still one of the animals listed as endangered.
The reason is because human impact causes their living environment to shrink too much. Furthermore, overhunting has pushed them into a state of alert.
There is an interesting detail about Tamandua and anteaters in general. It was in the 1700s that most Europeans believed that anteaters were hermaphrodites. Because it is said that they have two genitals, one in the right place, and the other is their long snout.
