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This is a quite a while ago, when we were going to dip our Ganesha idol, the ritual followed at the end of the Ganesha Chaturthi festivities. Once we reached the pond, while taking out the idol, we look at the car seat and we find ants - the red ones - all over it. We were thinking about how we drive the whole colony out of our car and I wittily suggested, we should get an anteater. A win-win formula!
Well, this blog is going to talk about edentates (armadillos, pangolins and others). Their diet is special as they feed on insects and termites. Isn't it strange?
They also posses a strange defensive technique like rolling themselves into a ball when a predator comes.This is common among all edentates. But armadillos can also walk underwater and are also capable of floating on water. Of course, small anteaters can also escape into a pit. Another peculiar aspect of Armadillos is that they are the only wild animals, other than humans, who could get leprosy! Nothing to worry - just don't cuddle or eat them.
Giant anteaters have sharp claws for defense and breaking open anthills. Pangolins don't need to break open the anthills that often as their tongues could enter the anthill holes all the way down. Pangolins have very long tongue, probably longest in the entire animal kingdom - how about 40 cm! Well, giraffes do have long tongues, which they use to clean their ears, but not as long as pangolins.
There are some animals that are not edentates but feast on ants. I have heard of a hyena specie - the aardwolf - whose food menu consists only of ants and termites, while the other hyena species are scavengers. Talking about hyena, do you know that hyena is not from the dog suborder, unlike jackals, foxes and wolves, but belongs to the cat suborder! There are only four species of hyenas, one of the smallest family, not only under the cats suborder, but under entire mammals class!!
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