Body:
* Slender, elongated body: This allows them to easily navigate through dense vegetation and ant nests.
* Long, powerful claws: Their claws are incredibly sharp and strong, used for ripping open termite mounds and ant nests.
* Short legs: Despite their size, anteaters have relatively short legs, making them less adept at running quickly.
* Long, prehensile tail: Used for balance while climbing trees and for wrapping around branches for stability.
* Hairless or sparsely haired body: This allows them to easily move through tight spaces and helps prevent ants and termites from clinging to their fur.
Head:
* Long, tubular snout: This specialized feature allows anteaters to reach deep into ant and termite nests to extract their prey.
* Tiny, toothless mouth: They lack teeth, but have a sticky tongue that can extend up to 2 feet (60 cm) to catch insects.
* Small, inconspicuous eyes: Their eyesight is poor, but they rely on their keen sense of smell to locate their prey.
* Sharp, strong claws on front paws: These are used to tear open nests and defend against predators.
Other notable features:
* Variable size: Anteaters range in size from the tiny pygmy anteater (around 12 cm) to the giant anteater (up to 2 meters long).
* Solitary creatures: They are usually solitary animals, except for mothers and their young.
* Excellent climbers: Some species, like the two-toed anteater, are skilled climbers and spend much of their time in trees.
These unique physical characteristics are all adaptations that enable anteaters to thrive in their specialized niche as insectivores.