Picture of the Week 43 – Halloween

This week’s picture is of a small Tamandua at Nashville Zoo celebrating Halloween with a giant pumpkin 🙂

Enjoy the picture!

About Tamanduas:
Tamandua is a genus of anteaters. It has two members: the Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) and the Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana). They live in forests and grasslands and possess partially prehensile tails. They mainly eat ants and termites. In captivity, they will eat fruits and meat. They have no teeth and depend on their powerful gizzard to break down their food. Besides the tamanduas, there are two other anteaters, the Giant Anteater and the Silky Anteater. Tamanduas are much smaller than the Giant Anteater, but are larger than the Silky Anteater. The word tamanduá is Tupi for “anteater”, and in Tupi and Portuguese refers to anteaters in general. The tamandua is called in those languages tamanduá-mirim (mirim means “small”).