Their tongues can be over two feet long! Their tongues are so long they don’t even fit in their mouths - they’re attached way down near their chest. Their tongue is one of the longest (compared to body size) of any animal! (Chameleons come in first - theirs can be twice as long as their bodies!) 👅

They don’t have teeth! Instead, they swallow small stones and sand to help break down the food in their stomach. Their stomach walls are extremely tough and work like a blender, crushing the ant and termite exoskeletons. 🦷

They can flick their tongues up to 150 times every minute! This makes them some of the fastest eaters on Earth. They have to be quick so they can grab ants before the nest figures out what’s happening and swarms in defense. ⚡

They eat up to 30,000 insects a day! Each snack only takes a few seconds, but they move from nest to nest nonstop. By the end of the day, that adds up to thousands of ants and termites! 🍽️

They may look gentle, but they can fight! When threatened, a giant anteaters can stand on its back legs and spread its arms wide. Its long, sharp claws are powerful enough to scare off even a jaguar! 🐆

Because their claws are so long, they curl their front feet inward and walk on their knuckles, kind of like gorillas. This gives them a slow, meandering walk. 🚶

They have one of the lowest body temperatures of any mammal - about 91°F! Like reptiles, this cooler body temperature helps them save energy because ants and termites don’t have many calories. ❄️

Their sense of smell is 40 times stronger than ours! They have poor eyes, so they use their smell to find ant and termite nests - even ones hidden underground! Then they dig them up with their powerful claws. 👃

Their tongues are covered in a super-sticky saliva, like glue. When they stick their tongues into an ant nest, the ants get stuck right away! 🧴

Their tongues also have tiny backward-pointing barbs. These help grab ants and termites as the tongue pulls back out - kind of like Velcro! 🪝