Your confusion is over!
I am sure, many of you have been baffled and confused as to what is the difference between these two long nosed, and long tongued creatures. In this weird animal facts episode we learn that the aardvark is a naked African mammal and the giant anteater is a fluffy American mammal (no relation) as well as many, many, many more facts that may or may not heal your confusing mind.
Scientific Names
Aardvark: Orycteropus afer
Giant Anteater: Myrmecophaga tridactyla
To help save the anteaters, sloths and armadillos who are near extinction consider learning and even donating to this link below.
https://www.xenarthrans.org/
Instagram @wafpodcast
tiktok @wafpodcast
Email: wafpodcastexplicit@gmail.com
Facebook: "Weird Animal Facts: Explicit"
Your confusion is over!
I am sure, many of you have been baffled and confused as to what is the difference between these two long nosed, and long tongued creatures. In this weird animal facts episode we learn that the aardvark is a naked African mammal and the giant anteater is a fluffy American mammal (no relation) as well as many, many, many more facts that may or may not heal your confusing mind.
Scientific Names
Aardvark: Orycteropus afer
Giant Anteater: Myrmecophaga tridactyla
To help save the anteaters, sloths and armadillos who are near extinction consider learning and even donating to this link below.
https://www.xenarthrans.org/
Instagram @wafpodcast
tiktok @wafpodcast
Email: wafpodcastexplicit@gmail.com
Facebook: "Weird Animal Facts: Explicit"
It is now time for the ultimate show down! Confusing everyone since the time of Arthur Reed, we have two animals that have bamboozled the world since the known existence of both. Two mammals of similar size, similar eating habits and similar tongues. Today we will answer the ultimate question of which is which? I present to you the two competitors of today the Aardvark and Giant Anteater!
Welcome to Weird Animal Facts: Explicit a show dedicated to the weird, odd, unusually, gross and often times disturbing facts about animals. My name is Deidre and I have worked as an animal care professional and educator for over a decade and now I am here to help answer your questioning about two animals that I’m sure many of you think are the same thing: Aardvark and giant anteater.
My guess is that what you are imagining is an animal that has a long nose with a long thin tongue that is used for eating ants. And you would be correct. But the two animal stars of today are no more related to each other then you are to a platypus. Yep, they’re both mammals and that’s where it stops. They just happened to be very similar in appearance with very similar adaptations.
And now its time to play: Guess that scientific vocabulary term you learned about in grade school but forgot. What is the scientific vocabulary term that is used when two or more distinct species share a trait NOT due to a common ancestor? Can I have an example please?... I guess. Birds, bats and butterflies can all fly, but they did not evolve from the same ancestor. They just developed the magical ability of flight on their own. You mean like how both the hedgehog and tenrec have spines but aren’t related at all?... what the fuck’s a tenrec? I mean yes. That would be convergent evolution. That’s correct!
So just because two things are similar doesn’t mean they are related. Just like how you and your partner share a love for Heavy Viking Metal Music but you don’t share the same parents. At least I hope not. For those of you who listened to last weeks’ episode, you may very well already know some of the aardvarks’ living relatives. And its not who you think: its the sengis! Or more commonly and inaccurately known as the elephant shrew. And we can actually break this down so that it makes sense for your lazy, listening brain. So sit back and relax and try not to hit the bumper of the car in front of you.
As we learned from the elephant shrew episode, we learned that both the elephant shrew and aardvark share a common ancient African ancestor, mainly due to when Pangea split apart, Africa was isolated so the animals there all evolved from what they were into what they are now. So that should tell you that the aardvark (just like the elephant sengis, because its not a shrew) is from Africa.
But what about the Giant anteater? They are from South America! Do you know who else is from South America? Armadillos and sloths! And guess which animals the Giant anteater is most closely related to. Armadillos and sloths!
Fun Fact: It was once thought that the pangolin was also a relative of the anteaters, armadillos and sloths, but thanks to DNA analysis we’ve learned, that’s just not true. Again, just because two animals look similar doesn’t mean they’re related. I may look like my dog, but we are not related.
Wait…but how is a giant anteater, armadillo and sloth all related. They don’t look that similar. You did listen to last week’s episode, right? When we talked about clades? (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, order, family, genus, species).
Why are we playing that song? Because we’re talking about classification and taxonomy. But clade isn’t in the song. Why would you play it? You’re just going to confuse them. Can’t you just tell them a clade let’s us know the evolutionary history? It’s more complicated than that…alright I guess that works. Moving on.
Just like how the aardvark and elephant sengis share a common ancient ancestor; the anteaters, sloths and armadillos too share a common ancient ancestor of their own. But an ancient ancestor from South America! Since that’s where they live.
To help you remember just think; Africa is bigger, and has two As, just like the Aardvark! South America also has two As in it. And so does the word anteater. And technically aardvark has 3 As. I thought you were trying to NOT confuse them. Fuck. Will you shut up?!
But don’t worry there are many more differences between the two that we’ll go over that may, or may not help you to remember which is which. Well, if it doesn’t help then what’s the point? What’s the point of you? Go away!
**Aardvark: A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K. If you’re like me you learned how to spell aardvark from an episode of Arthur. A PBS show based on a children’s book about an aardvark. But if missed out on the very first Arthur book, published in 1976 then you might be horribly confused as the Arthur many of us know today does not look like an aardvark. In the very first Arthur book: Arthur’s nose, Arthur, has a long ass nose. Just like an aardvark does (but if you ask me the nose looks more like an anteater nose). Stop confusing the listeners!
The aardvarks’ nose looks like someone grabbed on to a pig’s snout and stretch it out. As the nostrils, at the end of that long snoot has a pig snout. The ears looked to have once belonged to a donkey, not the tiny mouse looking ears from the PBS cartoon. The one thing that Marc Brown did get correct when it came to the aardvark’s appearance is the near naked body. Don’t worry parents, because it’s a children’s cartoon they did put clothes on him and all his animal friends; unlike the anteater of South American who is very, very fluffy. Especially that pompom like tail. The aardvark, on the other hand looks to have just as much hair as pig does (and I’m not talking about those cute kuni kuni pigs. I mean Babe and Wilbur type pigs).
To highlight exactly how naked the aardvark is, I would like you to imagine a baby aardvark. Because its skin looks like a sphynx cat…you know, those ugly naked ones with pink wrinkly folds of skin covering its glistening body of pure hate. But don’t worry because as the aardvark gets older, they start to grow some hair. But only some. It’s a good thing the aardvark can’t come across a giant anteater as they may get a bit jealous of the giant anteater’s luscious locks.
**Giant Anteater: A roaming fluffy mammal that looks to have a dildo on its face. While the aardvarks nose is that of a pig, with those two large wide nostrils that sniff across the African floor with ease, the giant anteater looks like a very long and thin dildo. The tip of this sex toy looking snoot, is rounded like a circumcised penis. Which is actually more accurate to what Marc Brown’s Arthur’s nose originally looked like. But unlike the nearly naked aardvark this giant Anteater of Central and South American is covered in long, flowing, gorgeous hair! The penis face, doesn’t have much hair, but the legs and tail look to be a show cowboy from Buffalo Bill’s wild west show with their frilled chaps.
With their cowboy pants and dildo face, you wouldn’t think that the giant anteater could get any weirder; but it does! Where most animals, as they walk around on all fours will walk on the pads of their feet (like a normal animal, which includes the aardvark), the giant anteater, for some reason, walks around like Andy Serkis in War of Planet of the Apes. Yeah! The giant anteater walks around on its knuckles! While both the giant anteater and aardvark have long claws for digging, the giant anteaters’ claws may be a bit longer, as if they were to walk like a normal animal, they would mostly stumble over those nails.
Well, I tumble outta burrow and stumble over my nails
Dig myself a termite meal
Yawn and bathe and try to come to life.
Jump in the river, and the blood starts pumping
Down the fur the ants start jumping
With hair like mine and nails ants better hide.
Giant Anteater; Central and South American
Barely getting by, as we are vulnerable
They just take our land and never give us credit
It’s enough to drive you extinct if you let it.
So they curl their nails under and walk on their knuckles so they don’t trip. But I guess to make up for that weird awkward way of walking, when they have their furry babies, they give them piggyback rides! Well, more like booty rides, as the baby is usually situated in the saddle between the ass and tail. So aside from having that long fur to keep the ants’ bites from hurting, the long fur is also there for baby to hold on to. Plus, they look big with that baby on their butt and anything in the animal world that’s big, is scary.
Look at me I’m a tiny jumping spider, but my pedipalps and front legs are in the air, so that means I’m really scary.
Wait. I’ve got a question. If the giant anteater has hair to keep the ants’ bites from hurting. How does the nearly naked aardvark keep the ant bites from hurting? Excellent question: They’ve got thick ass skin. Meaning the multiple ant bits don’t hurt them unlike your baby peach skin that causes you the scream in pain with one single ant bite.
Let’s jump back to just the giant anteater for a moment. Remember this is the fluffy American. As I would like to fine tune some of our specifics of just who we’re talking about today. The Giant anteater. Well yes, but did you know that there are actually four species of anteaters in Central and South America? As mentioned, we have the giant anteaters, but there is also the silky anteater; who is just a cute adorable little fluff ball of gold. Then there are two tamandua species: the northern and southern. Who both look like a miniature giant anteater, with way less shaggy fur and happen to live in tree. In fact, all three of these other anteater species are arboreal and have prehensile tails, making the giant anteater, who’s tail is just long and shaggy and is restricted to life on the ground is the odd man out.
As for the aardvark; its just them. There’s nobody else in their order, family, genus or species (Well that’s sad). Not really, especially when you think about all the other critters they come in contact with through their day (or night as the aardvark is nocturnal; probably to hide their nearly naked body from the world). An aardvark will encounter and then consume over 30,000 ants and/or termites in a single meal. So the aardvark has plenty of friends for dinner. And the same goes for the giant anteater.
Hey kids: Welcome to Be Like the Animals: where today we’re going to be just like a Giant Anteaters and the Aardvark. First whine, bitch and moan until you convince your parents to buy you a container of Nerds candy. Then climb up on to the counter, so to freak out your parents and get a plate so that you can dump out all the Nerd on to that plate. The next step is when we become either an aardvark or giant anteater. Stick out your tongue and place it on to the Nerd you dumped out on to the plate. Is your tongue covered in nerds? Just like the aardvark and anteaters of the world, that is due to all your saliva! Only in aardvarks and anteaters, they’re eating ants and termites and not Nerds. So to truly become one of these animals go outside and shove your tongue into an ant mount.
Disclaimer: Don’t do this.
When you stuck your tongue out to collect all of those nerds, you had only about three inches of tongue exposed. If you don’t believe me, give it a try. Stick out your tongue… Oh no its okay. I’ll wait. I have no where to be. Go ahead, stick out your tongue. Now imagine if you’re fact chunky tongue I have finally convinced you to stick out (imagine what the driver sitting next to you is thinking), was a foot long, or even two feet long. The Africa aardvark, who is typically heavier then the giant anteater only has a tongue about one foot long, while the American giant anteater, who’s fluffy fur makes them look heavier than they actually are, has a two foot tongue. And both of these two animals’ tongues as long, thin and lubed.
Just like when someone goes to enter your termite mount and they find themselves out of lube, they spit in their hand then proceed to moisten your inside; saliva can be very helpful. If only your partner produced the overly copious amount of saliva, then they’d go in with ease. But if it’s a man, he’d probably still complain saying he couldn’t feel much. It isn’t always about you men. As the aardvark and giant anteater show, wet is best. Because the perfect amount of wet will fill even an aardvark sized appetite.
Fun Fact: The Giant anteater’s tongue is also covered in tiny spikes that works just like Velcro! So just think, giant anteaters are fluffy-bodied and fluffy tongued…but it’s not fluff its spikes…Or just think aardvark has a naked tongue just like their naked body.
Double Fun Fact: While the giant anteater has spikes on it tongue is don’t have any teeth. But the aardvark does!
The aardvark’s teeth are small peg-like teeth located in the very back of the jaw. These teeth of the aardvark; look like teeth, and are shaped like teeth, but when you get really close to them, you’ll see that they aren’t one solid structure the way our pearly whites are. Each tooth appears to be made up of over 1,000 thick hairs standing on end. Think of it like the hair-like baleen teeth of a whale only the hairs are shoved tight together and have been shaped to look like normal teeth.
Fun Fact: Just like how your teeth are made from keratin, so is baleen. Your teeth are keratin! Baleen is keratin! Aardvark teeth are keratin! Everything is keratin!
But if the giant anteater doesn’t have teeth like the aardvark, how does it break down its food? Well first, its food if tiny, so that helps. You don’t have to chew all of those Nerds you just licked up, but it would definitely help out your digestion. But even though the aardvark does have teeth, there aren’t that many teeth so for both the aardvark and the toothless anteaters, they break down their food in some weird ways.
Both the aardvark and giant anteater’s digestion works pretty much the same as a pangolin. And if you haven’t checked out episode 47 you should as we talk about the pangolin. But in case you missed it he’s a snippet.
^^ (Clip from episode 47. Leaf Tailed Gecko and Pangolin)
You know about birds right? If you listened to the turkey episode then you’ll remember that turkey’s as well as many other birds such as chickens, ducks, quail and the falsely named dove (because its actually a stupid pigeon) all have what’s called a gizzard. And since these birds don’t have teeth for chewing their food they have a pocket, along their digesting path that is filled with grit that is pretty much pebbles and sand, so instead of chewing their food via teeth so to break it down the food goes in to the gizzard and the grit breaks down the food before it continues down its digesting journey. The pangolin also has a gizzard….well technically its not a true gizzard but just like some alligators, axolotl and sea lions, the pangolin will consume small rocks and pebbles that will sit in the stomach to help break down the ant and termite food they consume.
Fun Fact: The ants and termites the pangolin eats will actually helps in their own digestion. Since pangolins don’t create their own stomach acid, like us humans, they use the formic acid that the ants and termites are filled with to help further break down their food…which is the ants and termites.
^^
So basically, the stomach is doing the real chewing. However, its more like the base of the stomach, the part where the food would leave so to continue on its digesting journey. So there’s no gizzard pocket, like in birds, its just a really strong and tough pyloric region or globe as one study called it. As that muscle moves it helps to break down the food before it moves on. So I guess you could call it a modified gizzard because even though it’s not a prominent pocket that off-shoots from the digesting journey, some animals with this “chewing stomach,” as I’m going to call it, has a few chamber like regions that is separated by a sphincter. Making it gizzard-like.
So even though the naked African aardvark and fluffy American giant anteater, share many things in common, from their long nose, that slimy tongue, and even that gizzard-like belly, they didn’t come from the same ancestors. They are different, yet the same. Coming from vastly different habitats and regions of the world, these two animals somehow, in all this mess that we call life, were able to adapt very similar ways of living. Either God and Mother Nature have been sticking to a similar blueprint with all of their creations or aliens are to blame. And if it’s the latter then maybe one day the aliens will come back and help to save all of our endangered species; like that of the giant anteater. Listed as vulnerable on IUCN’s redlist, the giant anteater, being big, slow moving and lazy, has had a hard time avoiding human development. And to make you feel even shittier for being a human; because of human development the giant anteater has even become extinct in areas they were once very common in. Have you ever gone to Costa Rice? Belize, Guatemala? Well, if you do, you won’t be seeing a giant anteater there anymore.
Humans are dicks!
But you don’t have to be that what resembles the face of a giant anteater: because you can help by donating money xenarthrans.org and not only help protect giant anteaters but also, sloths and armadillos. You’ll be able to find a link in the episode description. And while you make your way to save a species by donating your hard-earned money. Let’s attempt to read some scientific names.
Scientific names are hard. As usually I have asked my roommate Emily to give me the scientific names of the two animals of today and I attempt to read them out loud. Which is much harder then it sounds. And if you don’t believe me: allow me to prove it.
Aardvark: Orycteropus afer
Giant Anteater: Myrmecophaga tridactyla
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You can rest easy tonight, knowing that you now know the difference between the naked, African aardvark with its pig like nose and the fluffy, American, giant anteater with its dildo looking snoot. But if you continue to get the confused then go verify your thoughts on our Facebook and Instagram pages, or better yet, listen to this episode again, but with a buddy who has a better memory then you. Because if you’ve knocked your head on as many bird perches and tiny animal enclosures as I have then you’re allowed to be confused just as long as you stay weird.