Trivia question for Jul-25-2011

Carter picked a cool looking little critter for his trivia today.  Check out what he found.  This is a small, solitary mammal that lives a secretive life high in the trees of rain-forests.

It is the smallest member of its species, with total length ranging from 14.1-17.7 in and usually weighing less than 0.88 lbs. It has a dense and soft golden brown fur, short snout, partially prehensile tail and two very enlarged claws in each forepaw.  It is a nocturnal and arboreal animal, found in lowland rain-forests with continuous canopy where they can move to different places without the need to descend from trees. When threatened, these guys defend themselves by standing on its hind legs and holding its forefeet close to its face so it can strike any animal that tries to get close with its sharp claws.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what this cute little guys is and how many of its favorite type of insect they can reportedly eat in a single night?  Also tell us how large the average home-range is for females and how large it is for males?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to Tami Kannenberg from Bellingham, Washington for being the first with the correct answer to our trivia. The cuddly little mammal we featured is the Silky Anteater. The Silky Anteater or Pygmy Anteater is a species of anteater from Central and South America, ranging from extreme southern Mexico south to Brazil Delta Amacuro Venezuela and possibly Paraguay.

The Silky Anteater is a slow moving animal and feeds mainly on ants, between 100 and 8000 a day, buy average around 5,000 each night. Sometimes it can also feed on other insects, such as termites and small coccinellid beetles.  Males home range is 11 hectares and a female’s home range is about 3 hectares. And as Tami pointed out… they really are cute!  Here is more on these guys:  Silky Anteater

Thanks for playing along 😉