ANT-EATERS AND SLOTHS 



159 



The feature which comes next in oddity is 

 the big, fleshy tail, covered with an enormous 

 brush of coarse, wavy hair. The popular belief 

 in South America that the Ant-Eater sweeps up 

 ants with its tail in order to devour them in a 

 wholesale way, is quite erroneous, for the tail 

 serves a very different purpose. Its use is to 

 cover the owner when asleep. When the animal 

 lies down to sleep, the tail is flung over the body, 

 and the long, wavy hair forms a thatch so thick 

 that no other portion of the creature is visible. 

 It looks like a pile of brown hay. A medium- 

 sized specimen that lived for about a year in the 

 New York Zoological Park measured 12 inches in 

 length of head, the neck and body, 31 inches, 

 and tail vertebrae, 26 inches. 



In its wild state, the Ant-Eater feeds upon 

 ants, which it devours in great quantities. In 

 fact, Nature has provided this Family of animals 

 to restrict the number of plague-like ants which, 

 even with Ant-Eaters in the forests, are entirely 

 too numerous. Its long and powerful front claws 

 are very useful in tearing open ant-hills, and dis- 

 secting decayed logs, but as a means of defence 

 they are quite inadequate. Neither are they 

 well-formed to walk upon. The tongue is very 

 long and slender, and can be thrust out 9 inches; 

 but. contrary to innumerable misstatements, it 

 is as clean and smooth as the tongue of a dog, 

 and is not coated with sticky saliva, or anything 

 like it. 



This animal is very clumsy on its feet, and 

 being defenceless, unable to climb, and too large 

 to live in a burrow, it is a wonder that all the 

 Great Ant-Eaters were not killed and devoured 

 long ago, by jaguars and pumas. Although 

 quite rare, even in South America, a goodly num- 

 ber of specimens find their way into captivity. 

 Until settled down sensibly to a diet of chopped 

 meat, milk, and eggs, they are difficult to keep 

 alive. Our specimen persistently refused to 

 eat ants. 



The Tamandua 1 is a smaller Ant-Eater than 

 the preceding species, of tree-climbing habits, 

 with a proportionately shorter head, no long 

 hair on its tail, and extremely large front claws. 

 It is found in Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, 

 and in fact the greater portion of the region of 

 tropical forests on this continent south of Mexico. 

 Its tail is prehensile, or grasping, and in climbing 

 1 Tam-an'du-a tet-ra-dac'ty-la. 



is used almost constantly. One of these creat- 

 ures which I once kept in South America as a 

 camp pet, became very friendly, and even affec- 

 tionate, and when permitted would climb all over 

 me, as if I were a new and very soft species of 

 tree. In the accompanying picture, the Taman- 

 dua is represented by the small central figure. 

 Its head-and-body length is about 24 inches, tail, 

 18 inches. 



THE SLOTH FAMILY. 



Bradypodidae. 



The sloths inhabit the New World only; and 

 the so-called " sloth " of Ceylon is not a sloth, but 

 a slow lemur. All the real sloths belong to the 

 Order of Edentates, and inhabit the tropical 

 forests of Central and South America, from Costa 

 Rica southward. The sloths are not really 

 toothless, for they have five pairs of teeth in the 

 upper jaw, and four in the lower. 



One cannot look at a live sloth without think- 

 ing that Nature has but poorly equipped this 

 animal to live in this murderous world. Its 

 countenance is a picture of complete and far- 

 reaching stupidity, its bodily form the acme of 

 four-footed helplessness. It can neither fight, 

 hide, nor run away. It has no defensive armor, 

 nor even spines. It is too large to live in a hole in 

 a tree, and too weak to dig a burrow in the earth. 

 It is too tired to walk on its feet, as the monkeys 

 do, so throughout its queer life it hangs under- 

 neath the branches of the trees in which it finds 

 its food. Its feet are merely four hooks by which 

 to hang. Since it feeds wholly upon leaves and 

 buds, it lives in the tropical forests, where green 

 leaves are plentiful and cheap. 



The sloth dwells only in the tree-tops, among 

 the monkeys and macaws. On the ground, it 

 would be more helpless than a tortoise, and easily 

 killed by any carnivore, or wild pig. In the tree- 

 tops, it escapes the climbing ocelot by living far 

 out on the ends of the branches; and it is fortu- 

 nate for him that hawks, owls, and eagles are 

 scarce in the forests wherein he dwells. 



At this point, however, it is a pleasure to point 

 out that Nature has done one special thing for 

 the preservation of these odd creatures. The 

 hair of a sloth is long, wavy and coarse, rather 

 more like grass than hair, and in color and gen- 

 eral appearance it is the best imitation of tree- 



