Jockamo the Giant Anteater

The newest member of the Franklin Park Zoo's Tropical Forest was introduced to the public this month: meet Jockamo, the giant anteater. Originally hailing from Louisiana, at one and a half years old, Jockamo is 112 pounds of shaggy, needle-nosed oddity. Giant anteaters are native to South America, where they amble through fields and pastures probing termite mounds, anthills, and tree stumps for the wee insects that make up their diet. Using powerful forelimbs with impressive curved claws, anteaters are able to open insect colonies protected behind wood or earth and reach in with long (up to 2 feet!), sticky tongues which trap and reel in their skittering meals. One of a scarce handful of mammals without any teeth, known as "edentate", all anteaters (there are 4 species in all: the giant, the silky, and the southern and northern tamandua) crush their insect prey between hard palettes in the mouth; sand and small rocks found in deceased anteater stomachs suggest that these ingested objects further aid the digestion of all those insect exoskeletons. 

Having never seen a giant anteater in person before, I must say, Jockamo has single-handedly moved anteaters up to the top of my creature crush list. Not only is he bizarrely beautiful, he displays the most gentle, inquisitive behaviors - a bit like those of a domestic canine - and you just can't help but want to snuggle up and give him a scratch behind the ears. I suppose these qualities help explain the below photo of eccentric mid-century surrealist, Salvador Dalí, walking a leashed giant anteater out of a Paris subway station; apparently the artist was quite taken with the beasts and appeared in public with them on multiple occasions... which really makes perfect sense, all things considered.

Below: Salvador Dalí and anteater friend, 1969; a vintage image of a giant anteater and a tamadua; two beautiful origami anteaters by paper artist Quentin Trollip; photo of a giant anteater in Pantanal, Brazil, by Luis Claudio, and a sketch of Jockamo from the FPZ.