The Amazon Forest teems with life. Some of it is nasty and dangerous. Some of it is beautiful and colourful. In this article we examine the anteater and boa constrictor.
The Life of an Anteater Is the Life for Me: Plenty of Grubs and Ants and Not Much Work to Find Them
There are four varieties of anteaters that live in the Amazon Forest. One and all are officially classified as edentates, meaning that they are as toothless as George Washington.
There is the giant anteater, which does sound impressive until you remember that it is really only a giant in relation to the ants. The giant anteater has an enviable sense of smell and hearing, ideal assets when it comes to ant search-and-eat missions. However, the giant anteater does not limit itself strictly to a diet of ants. Oh no-- there is so much more to this behemoth than just the eating of ants. It also eats grubs and termites.
When the sun descends and the forest turns inky black, the anteater will be sure to dig a hole in the soil to sleep in or else, failing that, will confiscate the burrow of some other animal. To keep itself warm, the anteater, like the unrelated house cat, curls its tail around itself while it sleeps, dreaming its delicious dreams of tasty little slow-moving ants.
The other Amazon anteaters include the northern tamandua, southern tamandua and the silky anteater.
Surprisingly-- at least to non-anteater lovers-- in recent years there has been an upswing in the anteater pet trade.
Oh, the Simple Joys of Squeezing Your Prey to Death
Visitors walking along trails in the Amazon should look out for threats from above, and it isn´t bird droppings that is implied in this warning. Tree limbs are the domain of the boa constrictor. Boa constrictors grow to between 10 and 14 feet long and check on the comings and goings of their prey the hard way: they stick out their tongue to smell and hear by the vibrations on the ground.
As might be expected, boa constrictors deal with their prey much in the same way that your Aunt Bertha greets you-- and this is by squeezing the life out of the squeezie.
After having squeezed its victim to its heart´s content, the boa constrictor will locate the head and begin to swallow from there. This is where the boa constrictor will probably differ from your Aunt Bertha and behave more like the anaconda. The boa constrictor likes its meals whole. It is a slow process--which would be quite painful for you, the meal, but for the fact that you´ll already be dead, having succumbed to the squeezing.
The jaw and mouth bones of the boa constrictor are conveniently able to stretch (see how Mother Nature thinks of everything?) so that prey that is larger than its head can be accommodated.
Other articles in this series:
Piranha, Little Attacker of Humans
Related to the Amazon:
