- Myrmecophaga Giant
anteater
• Anteaters are characterised by long tapering snouts, tubular mouth, without
teeth and long sticky protrusible tongue for capturing ants and termites which
are swallowed whole.
• Their forefeet have long, sharp claws for digging the anthills.
- Dasypus Armadillo • Dasypus novemcinctus, the nine-banded armadillo is found in
N. America, Central and S. America.
• These are the only living mammals that have bony plates in their skin.
The plates are intercepted by hair.
• At the time of danger, it rolls up into a ball for protection. It is nocturnal,
scavenger and lives in burrows.
• It shows polyembryony in which one zygote produces four to eight young ones
of the same sex.
• Mycobacterium leprae (bacteria which cause leprosy) can grow in Armadillo.
Pholidota
- Manis Pangolin • Scaly anteaters or pangolins have their home in tropical Asia and Africa and
belong to the single genus Manis.
• They live on ground, in burrows or in trees and range from 30 cm to
1.5 metres in length.
• They have a long, sticky, extensile tongue with muscular roots, used for feeding
on termites or white ants. It does not have teeth.
• When attacked, they roll themselves into a ball for defence, like Armadillos.
Primates
- Lemur Lemur • They are most abundant in Madagascar and neighbouring islands and are
regarded to be the lowest primates.
• Tail is long and non-prehensile.
• Vision is poor.
• It feeds mostly on plants and small animals.
- Loris Loris • Lorises are found outside Madagascar.
• They are arboreal, nocturnal and have a tooth comb.
• They also eat fruits and small animals. However, they are tailless, move slowly
and often hang upside down.
- Macaca Rhesus
monkey
• One of the best known Old World monkeys is the rhesus monkey or ‘bandar‘,
Macaca mulatta.
• It is common in northern India, southern China and Indochina (Vietnam).
• It is widely used in biological investigations. The Rh blood factor was first
discovered in these monkeys.
• It has simple stomach and large cheek pouches for storing food.
- Hylobates Gibbon • Gibbon is the smallest and cleanest of all apes. It is found in the rain forests of
Assam, S.E. Asia and Indonesia.
• It lives almost entirely on trees swinging rapidly from branch to branch by its
long arms and famous for its acrobatics.
• It is frugivorous.
• Gibbons live in pairs and make loud territorial calls.
- Pongo Orangutan • Confined to the low-lying forests of Sumatra and Borneo.
• Orangutan means ‘man of the woods‘.
• Body is 1.5 metres high with long arms, short legs and long shaggy red hair.
• It is mainly arboreal, feeding on buds and fruits. It constructs a sort of nest on
tree top for living. On ground, it walks on its feet and knuckles.
