anteaters the name given, for the obvious reason, to various wild animals found in S. America, Africa, and SE Asia, of which the aardvark is perhaps the best known. Anteaters have long snouts which they thrust into ant-heaps in order to devour the ants or termites. Alternatively they may climb trees in search of tree ants, as do the pangolins or scaly anteaters of the genus Manis. The nature of their diet, which they catch with a sticky tongue, has resulted in their having no or merely vestigial teeth.
