Home – Central and South America
Habitat – forests and grasslands
Niche – large insectivore
Favorite Food – ants and termites
Length – between 5 and 10 feet nose to tail tip
Weight – up to 85 pounds
Status – Vulnerable to Extinction
Threats – habitat loss and hunting
The giant anteater is one of Earth’s weirdest looking mammals. Sporting a long, tubular snout and a tail that looks whisked from an ostrich, this resident of South America shuffles throughout the rainforests and plains searching for what concerns him. And what concerns the giant anteater is ants.
The giant anteater’s amazing 2-foot-long tongue is covered with tiny, backward-facing spines that are slathered in sticky saliva when the animal feeds. After it’s broken into the nest with its muscular forearms and wicked claws, the anteater will then start snaking its tongue in and out, lapping up any ant it touches.
Miraculously, the giant anteater obtains most of its water from the ants it consumes. Since it depends on ants for not just its food but also its water, it has has devised a way to ensure it always something to eat in its territory. It only feeds for about a minute at each of the nests it visits. Although it can flick its tongue in and out 150 times in that minute, the anteater only consumes about 1% of the ants it needs daily from a single nest. However, because it exercises restraint, the surviving ants have a chance to rebuild the nest and rear more ants. Thus, because the giant anteater is careful not to over-exploit precious resources, its ensured food for life.
Not only does it have a pretty sweet life on the eating end, but the giant anteater has few enemies to fear other than man. Although big cats like puma and jaguar will attack this german-shepard-sized tank of an animal, they will meet with stiff resistance. It looks like Snuffy from Sesame Street, but the giant anteater can easily overpower even the stoutest foe. Punching out with its long front claws, it can deliver devastating wounds to attackers. And if its able to hug the predator with a firm grip, then you can imagine what happens to flesh and bones under claws and muscle designed to rip open trees. But these normally gentle giants prefer to avoid confrontation. Their extremely keen senses of smell and hearing help them to detect both food and danger as they walk awkwardly on their knuckles to prevent damage to their essential front claws.
Giant anteaters are one of the most successful mammals on the South American continent, but they will only continue to thrive if man allows it. They are hunted for their furs and have been driven from much of their former range due to habitat destruction in the process of industrial development. They are now vulnerable to extinction.
Home – Sub-Saharan Africa
Habitat – trees
Niche – arboreal predator
Favorite Food – chameleons
Body Length – between 4 and 6 feet
Venomous – yes
Status – common
One of Africa’s deadliest snakes doesn’t lurk in rock crevices or along the ground. Instead, the venomous boomslang spends most of its time in trees, slinking along the leaves in search of dinner. In fact, the word “boom” is Dutch for tree. Although it has no limbs, it propels its muscular body with ease over branches and can anchor itself with its tail when ambushing small animals, especially chameleons. Living nearly everywhere in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, these are among the most successful snakes on earth.
Boomslangs belong to the largest group in the snake family, the colubrids. Members of this group have very flexible skulls, allowing them to tackle prey much larger than their head. Although they have fangs, boomslangs don’t chew their food. Instead, they use specialized teeth in their throat to pull their paralyzed prey into their gullet, whole. Like other snakes, the boomslang has a specialized sensory organ called the Jacobson’s organ, allowing it to detect smells gathered from the air on its tongue. This remarkable organ lets them to “smell through” the main defense of chameleons, their ability to blend in visually with their surroundings. If the boomslang gets close enough, it can detect exactly where the chameleon is sitting by smelling the air around it.
Boomslangs are deadly because of the venom they deliver through their fangs. It belongs to a family of poisons called hemotoxins, attacking the blood and causing internal bleeding in the victim. The venom is so powerful that it is potentially deadly to humans, and deaths from boomslang strikes are reported yearly in many regions of Africa. But like most snakes, boomslangs do not generally attack people unprovoked. Usually they strike out of self-defense when threatened or cornered.
Home – Southeast Africa
Habitat – moist grassland
Niche – Large grassland herbivore
Favorite Food – grass
Length – between 6 and 8 feet long
Weight – between 300 and 650 pounds
Status – Lower Risk
Threats – Habitat loss from ranching and farming
From a distance, the sable antelope looks like a small horse with horns. Although both the male and the female sables have the same markings on their bodies, the male is jet black and the female is a golden brown. Their fantastical appearance brings African unicorns to mind.
Sable antelope are peculiar relatives of horses, sheep, and goats. Both sexes sport two heavily-ringed horns the size and shape of curved swords atop their heads. These are the mark of their species, how males will determine dominance, and how the next generation will come about as a result.
The dry season has ended in Central Africa on a wide strip of grassland running from Kenya to South Africa. During this difficult season, the local sable antelopes had gathered into herds of 100 or more to protect young and locate food. But now, as the rain comes down with force to mark the opening of the new season, things get wet. It’s the mating season and the males have broken off into small gangs to prowl the moist grasslands for females. In fact, sable antelope prefer moister grasslands than most of their antelope cousins. For these young men, finding the ladies is only half the battle. The real test comes when the gang members square off for breeding rights.
Dipping his head into a bow, the dominant male shows off his gravitas to others thirsting to challenge him. There’s a lot at stake. Whichever sable antelope male earns the wary submission of the others gets to mate with a harem of females, sometimes 20 strong. Big horns, loud snorts, and dogged willpower decide the day.
When the dominant male has driven off the competition, he corrals his prize (often less than willing) to the territory he now controls. You might say sable antelope society is something like the human equivalent of territorial rule by warlords. A handful of males in a region control a zone of land and everything in it, but not beyond. Stout-hearted male sables have been observed defending and holding their territory for two years or more.
Although a big 600 pound male can drive even formidable predators from his territory, he doesn’t have such a cordial time of it with humans. After years of neglect by the developed world except for the exploitation of its living and physical resources, Africa is coming into its own. And as the young continent starts to assert its own destiny in the 21st century, the future of the sable antelope – alongside all the great mammals of the Serengeti, will once again be directed by one of two paths: one towards conservation or one of destruction.
Home – Sub Saharan Africa, West and South Asia
Habitat – varied, including grasslands, deserts, and tropical forests
Niche – opportunistic predator
Favorite Food – honeybee larvae
Length – up to 3.5 feet nose to tail tip
Weight – up to 30 pounds
Status – Lower Risk
When people think of ferocious animals, they think of the big ones – sharks, lions, tigers, bears. But as it turns out, there are few animals on earth that are stouter of heart than a certain mammal no bigger than a terrier. Cross a honey badger and you cross what Guinness named the most fearless mammal on earth.
The honey badger is native to sub-Saharran Africa and South Asia, living in a variety of habitats in its wide range. From dry savanna to dense forest, it trots over great distances in constant search of food to fuel its impressive metabolism. Seeking safe haven in underground burrows or inside rock crevices, the honey badger is an active hunter in the daylight hours. Most badgers are nocturnal and have poor eyesight, relying instead on a highly developed sense of smell to find food. But the honey badger is built for hunting anything it can get its mouth around during the light of day. Everything from worms and termites up to formidable animals like porcupines and snakes are potential sources of food for this miraculous member of the weasel family.
Being active in the daytime is not the only trait that sets the honey badger apart from other badgers. Indeed, it is only distantly related to what are called “true badgers” – a family that includes the familiar American and Eurasian badgers. The honey badger possesses the long digging claws of its cousins, but its teeth are not as adapted for crushing. It has fewer teeth, but those it has are adapted to biting and holding on tight. It also sports a defense that’s more commonly developed in skunks than badgers. If an enemy gets too close, the honey badger will unleash a chemical assault from its backside. Specialized anal glands secret a nauseating liquid that can drive off even the most fearsome foe.
As the name implies, the honey badger is fond of the sweet stuff of honeybees. And remarkably, through the wonders of evolution, it has devised a rather ingenious way of obtaining it. A certain type of bird in Africa, the black-throated honeyguide is its partner in crime. The honeyguide is able to locate bees’ nests by virtue of its flight, but it has no means of plundering the nest by itself. The bird is too small to brave a swarm of bees and tear open a nest to obtain the honey it wants. Instead, it relies on some hired muscle. After it has located a nest, the next step is for the bird to find a nearby honey badger. Communicating through its flight and calls, the bird will then lead the badger to the nest. Undeterred by the stings on its thick hide, the honey badger will rip the nest to pieces with its strong claws, allowing both badger and bird to feast on the sweet reward of honey and bee larvae.
Aside from its interesting relationship with birds, the honey badger is known for its fearless disposition. Its skin is thick and tough, and hangs loosely from its body, reducing damage to vital organs if it is bitten in a fight. But defense is only part of its reputation. The honey badger can dish out punishment with the best of them. If its noxious chemical musk isn’t enough to drive away an assailant, it can bite with great force and will not let go until its adversary loses consciousness or shakes the badger off. The honey badger proves that bravery in the animal kingdom can come in small packages.
Home – Northeast and Southeast Australia
Habitat – varied: coastal woodlands, grasslands
Niche – small opportunistic predator
Favorite Food – insects
Length – up to 20 inches
Weight – a few pounds
Status – Common
Imagine you’re a small predator looking for a meal. After some time prowling the dusky landscape of northern Australia, you spy a sluggish lizard basking in the sun. You observe from a distance that it moves slowly and clumsily even in the heat of midday. Deciding that it will be your next meal, you move in. As you move within striking distance, something unexpected happens. All of a sudden, the reptile you took for an easy meals puffs up and opens its mouth wide, hissing as it flicks out a monstrous-looking blue tongue. You run.
At first glance, the blue tongued skink doesn’t seem like anything special. In fact, due to its coloration and sluggish nature, it’s often mistaken for a fallen tree branch in the coastal woodlands and interior grasslands of Australia where it lives. It’s a locally common reptile in Australia and feeds on a variety of insects, slugs, and snails, with the occasional berry or flower. It’s also been known to scavenge at picnic sites for tasty scraps left over from human visitors. Active by day, it will seek refuge under debris or inside logs as shelter from the cold night.
The blue tongued skink has a large triangular head, and a long, heavily-built body. It’s big for a skink, with adults measuring between 14 and 22 inches. But it’s not size that makes the blue tongued skink so special. As its name implies, it has a striking, blade-like blue tongue that the animal uses to frighten away threats. For most would-be predators, the mere sight of bright blue is enough to deter an attack. In the animal kingdom, bright colors often signify that an animal is venomous, or at the very least, dangerous. However, behind all the bluster, the blue tongued skink is mostly harmless. If cornered, it can deliver a powerful bite to a person, but its tiny dull teeth are unlikely to break the skin. Like other skinks, its tail is one of its main defenses against predators. If its blue tongue fails to frighten away a carnivore and it manages to bite the skink’s tail, it will break off, allowing an escape. The tail will grow back in a matter of weeks.
Mating is serious business for the skinks and the males are territorial, defending their turf and prospective mates against other males. Courtship involves a brief chase and a love bite delivered by the male on the back of the female’s head. 150 days after mating, the female will give birth. Blue tongued skinks don’t lay eggs, but rather give birth to a litter of between 5 to 25 live young. If they’re fortunate enough to survive the trials of growing up in the forbidding Australian wilderness, they’ll reach maturity in about 3 years. Blue tongued skinks have relatively long lifespans and in captivity have reached 25 years of age.
Although behind its characteristic feature, the blue tongued skink might just seem like just another chunky lizard, it’s yet another striking example of the wild diversity of reptiles in Australia, and on planet earth.
