Giant Anteaters

“For I say, through the grace given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” [Romans 12:3]

Giant anteaters are among the strangest animals God ever made. This largest of the anteater species lives in grasslands and open tropical forests of Central and South America. Covered with stiff, straw-like hair that grows up to 10 inches long on the tail, a full-grown creature weighs about 90 pounds and grows to be about 4 feet long (about the size of a German shepherd), and that’s not including a puffy tail that adds an additional 3 feet. Giant anteaters have large, sharp, hook-like claws on each front foot. They walk on the back of their wrists to protect them. These claws are used to dig for food and for self-defense against jaguars and pumas, their natural enemies.

Anteaters are of course insectivores, eating mostly ants and termites, but will also eat other insects as long as they don’t sting. At the end of the anteater’s very long nose is a very small mouth, barely big enough to pass a pencil, but they are great at catching insects using their 2-footlong sticky tongue, flicking it in and out up to 160 times each minute! The tongue has backward-pointing barbs that mash the captured insects against the hard pallet. Because they are toothless, most chewing occurs in the gizzard-like stomach, aided by ingested pebbles.

Though they have terrible eyesight, the giant anteater has excellent hearing and awakens at the slightest sound. They mark their territory with a gland on their hind end. The odor is so strong that some have nicknamed them “stinker of the forest.” They have a keen sense of smell that can identify the species of ants and termites that are in the nest before they rip it open. Even though their sense of smell is 40 times more powerful than man’s, they don’t seem to be bothered by their own stink!

Some Christians seem to feel they have keen senses that can pick out sin in the lives of everyone around them. Jesus spoke to people who critically judge others when He said, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye” (Matthew 7:3). Paul warned us, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Philippians 2:3). Sometimes we can be so proud that we are not bothered by our own stink!