Giant Anteater With 6-Foot Long Tongue Has Two-Foot-Long Baby in Chester, England

The Chester Zoo in England announced the birth of a giant anteater pup this week. The mom, 13-year-old Bliss, and the dad Oso (nine) are first-time parents. 

“For the time being, the baby is feeding from mum’s milk, crawling to her underbelly to suckle before climbing back around to rest on her back,” according to the zoo’s website. “The pup will cling to its mum’s back for around 10 months, where its matching stripe on its fur keeps it camouflaged, until it’s ready to walk, explore and find food independently.”

The newborn is just under two feet long and is expected to put on another five feet as an adult. The anteater tongue is no slouch, either: it can grow to be six feet long and will be able to hoover up to 30,000 ants or termites per day, extending and withdrawing 150 times per minute.

The parents met-cute in February, 2018. Tim Rowlands, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said at the time: “Oso is a very important giant anteater as males are scarce in the European breeding program. His genetic makeup is vital to the future conservation breeding of the species and hopefully, in time, he’ll hit it off with female Bliss and they’ll go on to have pups.”

That time has come. Good job, Oso and Bliss, and welcome to Earth, as-yet-unnamed new guy.

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They live throughout Central and South America, but their numbers are decreasing as the big mammals are up against habitat loss, roadkills, hunting,  wildfires.

Watch the birth and first moments of the new anteater here.

Photo credit: Chester Zoo