Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found: A Book of Zoology for Boys

by Mayne Reid

The two species of smaller ant-bears, or Tamanduas, obtain their sustenance in a similar manner, and in other respects are like their great congener; but they possess a power with which the latter is not gifted—that of climbing trees, and making their nests high up in the cavities of the trunks. They have the further power of being able to suspend themselves from the branches with their tails, which, like those of the opossums, are highly prehensile. The tamanduas do not live solely upon ant-diet. The wild bees, that build nests among the branches, are also objects of their attention; and their thick hairy skins appear to protect them from the stings of these insects.

The smallest species—called the Ouatiri, or Two-toed Ant-eater—differs altogether from the three above-mentioned. It more resembles a little monkey, and is covered all over with a thick coat of soft woolly hair of a yellowish colour. It is also a tree-climber, possesses a naked prehensile tail, and makes its nest in a hole in the trunk, or in one of the larger branches.

In Africa the ant-eaters are represented by several kinds of animals, differing essentially from each other in outward appearance, though all agreeing in their habits, or rather in the nature of their food.

The Aard-vark, or Earth-hog, of the Cape colonists, is the most noted kind. This animal is a long, low-bodied creature, with sharp-pointed snout, and an immense whip-like tongue, which he is capable of projecting to a great distance, in the same manner as the tamanoir. His body is covered with a dense shock of reddish-brown hair; and he dwells in a burrow, which he can cleverly make for himself—hence his trivial name of Ground-hog.

The other African ant-eaters are usually called Pangolins, or Manis. These are covered with scales that resemble suits of ancient armour; and on this account they have sometimes been confounded with the armadilloes, though the two kinds of creatures are altogether different in their habits. The pangolins possess, in common with the armadilloes, the power of rolling themselves into a ball whenever attacked by an enemy—a fashion not peculiar to pangolins and armadilloes, but also practised by our own well-known hedgehog.

The Sloths belong to this group of mammalia; not that they have the slightest resemblance to the ant-eaters in any respect, but simply, as before stated, because they want the cutting teeth. They are not absolutely toothless, however, since they possess both canines and molars. With these they are enabled to masticate their food, which consists of the leaves and tender shoots of trees.

The name, sloth, is derived from the sluggishness of their movements, amounting almost to complete inactivity. They scarce stir from the spot in which they may be placed, or at all events move so slowly as to be a whole hour in getting from one tree to another, or even from one limb to another! They spend most part of their time upon the trees (the cecropia peltata is their favourite), usually clinging to the branches with their backs downward; and in this way they crawl from one to another, uttering at intervals a plaintive cry, which resembles the syllable aï, uttered several times in succession. From this they derive one of their trivial names of Ai, or Ay-ay.

The sloths are all inhabitants of tropical America—dwellers in the great forests of Guiana and Brazil.

As natural curiosities in the animal kingdom, the Armadilloes do not yield to any of the four-footed creatures, and an account of their habits, would space permit, could not be otherwise than extremely interesting. They are exclusively inhabitants of America; but many species, both in North and South America, are found far beyond the limits of the torrid zone. There are a great many species known—and these are of all sizes—from that of an ordinary rat, to the Giant Tatou, which sometimes attains the enormous dimensions of a moderate sized sheep! It may be mentioned that they are subdivided into a number of genera, as the sloths, etcetera; and here, again, without any very sufficient reason, since they all possess the scaly armour—from which the name armadillo is derived—and their habits are nearly identical. They dwell in burrows, which they make for themselves; in fact, they are more than ordinarily clever at excavating, and have been blamed for carrying their tunnels into graveyards, and feeding upon the bodies there deposited! Of some of the species this charge is but too true; and one would think that an animal of such habit would be regarded with disgust. On the contrary, the flesh of the armadillo is in much esteem as an article of food, both among the white colonists and the natives, and men and dogs are employed in many parts of South America to procure it for the table. Several species of armadilloes possess the power of clueing themselves up, à la hedgehog, and thus presenting an impenetrable front to the attacks of an enemy; while others want this power, but, in its stead, can flatten their bodies along the ground, in such a way that neither dog nor jaguar can set tooth upon anything softer than their scales, and these are as impenetrable as if they were plates of steel.

The more noted species are known by different names—as the Tatou Poyou, the Giant Tatou, the Peba, the Pichiciago, the Pichey, the Hairy Tatou, the Mataco, the Apara, and such like designations.