... Banded Anteater, Oso Homiguero (Tamandua mexicana) ...
by Infocostarica Staff

The banded or lesser anteater weighs 4-6 kg and is normal in low and mid top habitats througout central and northern South America. South and east of Andes it is substituted by the T. tetradactila, which is somewhat unlike from the mexicana morphologically but identical in its ecology and behavior. T. Mexicana, throughout its range is golden to brown with black V across the back.

The Anteater is diurnally active and has a extreme specialization for an arboreal way of life. It can move rapidly through the trees, bleeding with its forelimbs and using even his tail to make easier the locomotion. The form of its bleeding is not the same to that shown by the gibbon. The body proportions give it its common name, just looking its limbs: long and slender. The tail is very prehensile and strong supporting the entire weight of the animal

The gestation in this animal takes approximately 225 days. Intervals between births can range from 2 to 3 years. Lactation demands during the first year of the infant ´s life induce a lactation , and the female generally will not begin to cycle again until weaning is concluded.

.When it is one year old the young animal weighs approximately 500g. It remains in intimate alliance with the mother for the first three months of life. Initially it is carried ventrally and about 1.5 to 2 months it begins to ride dorsally in the mother ´s body. The young will proceed to suckle from the mother until it is close to 1 year of age, although at this age it has begun to take significant solid food. The weaning process is slow, with solid foods being taken from about three months of age on. The age of weaning is possibly in part a business of the alimentary situation of the female and the young. Since the female produces only a single young and the international period is changeable and extended, the reproductive rate of Tamanduain the wild is very low. Thus wild populations of Tamandua are slow to recuperate from any form of hunting. It appears that the genus Tamandua is very susceptible to human perturbation of the habitat, and it may be among the first primate species to decline with severe disturbance

Tamandua frequently inhabits both lowland and mountain forests from southern Mexico to northwestern South America. In Costa Rica they are the last remaining primates in several relict patches of forest