Giant Anteater — Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Giant Anteater

The giant anteater is one of the most unusual-looking mammals in the world. It has a long tube-like snout, a bushy tail that fans out like a shaggy umbrella, and enormous curved front claws. Giant anteaters can reach six feet in length from snout to tail tip and weigh up to 140 pounds. They are found in the grasslands, forests, and wetlands of Central and South America.

The giant anteater’s most remarkable feature is its tongue, which can extend up to two feet out of its narrow snout. The tongue is covered with tiny backward-pointing spines and coated with thick, sticky saliva. A giant anteater can flick its tongue in and out of a termite mound up to 150 times per minute, consuming thousands of insects in a single feeding session. Giant anteaters have no teeth; they grind insects against the roof of their hard, muscular stomach.

Giant anteaters use their powerful front claws to tear open rock-hard termite mounds and ant hills. These claws are so long that the animal actually walks on its knuckles rather than its palms to protect the claws from wear. When threatened by a predator such as a puma or jaguar, a giant anteater rears up on its hind legs and strikes with its front claws — a blow capable of seriously injuring or killing a large animal.

Giant anteaters are solitary and largely silent animals. Females carry their young on their backs for up to a year after birth, with the pup’s stripe pattern aligned with the mother’s to provide camouflage. Giant anteaters are listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss from agriculture and ranching, as well as road deaths and hunting. They play an important ecological role by controlling termite and ant populations across large areas.

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