Raising a giant anteater: what we’re learning about maternal care

An interview with Dr Alessandra Bertassoni, ICAS-affiliated researcher

There are few sights more incredible than a giant anteater mother walking through the Brazilian landscape with her young baby clinging to her back. And there is much more to this relationship than meets the eye.

For Dr Alessandra Bertassoni, understanding the bond between giant anteater mothers and their young has been the focus of years of fieldwork. Her research reveals fascinating details about how mothers care for their young, how babies develop their independence and why maternal behaviour is so important for the conservation of this remarkable species.

From maned wolves to giant anteaters

Alessandra's journey into giant anteater research began when she was a biology student working on maned wolves in Serra da Canastra National Park in central Brazil.

The park is home to one of the highest densities of giant anteaters in Brazil and Alessandra quickly found herself seeing them regularly encountering as many as 13 in a single day.

"I asked the researchers about it, and they said that this is not a species that's easy to see in other places. We have here a unique possibility to see the giant anteaters as it’s a high-altitude park and the climate is colder.”

Alessandra had been interested in ethology - the study of animal behaviour - since her undergraduate studies. She had already carried out research on giant anteater behaviour in captivity but she wanted to understand how these animals behaved in the wild.

That opportunity came several years later when she met Dr Arnaud Desbiez, founder of Wild Animal Conservation Institute (ICAS).

When ICAS began monitoring giant anteaters in Cerrado, Alessandra saw an exciting opportunity. Several females were already being tracked using GPS harnesses and some were producing children.

"I asked him whether there was someone studying maternal behaviour," she says. "He said not currently as they had other questions to answer for the project."

The conversation eventually led to the creation of the Babies Project. Alessandra spent three years visiting the areas where ICAS was monitoring giant anteaters, observing mothers and their offspring and documenting their behaviour in the wild.

"We have great data on this key part of giant anteater natural history.”

Why study maternal behaviour?

A baby giant anteater may look small and vulnerable but the relationship it has with its mother is fundamental to its survival.

Females are pregnant for around 180 days and invest considerable energy in producing and raising their young. For the first months of life, the baby depends heavily on its mother for milk, warmth and protection.

This is also an especially dangerous time. Research has shown that the highest mortality rate in giant anteaters occurs during the first year of life, making the relationship between mother and child a critical part of understanding the species' survival.

"To understand what is happening with this bond and how the mother is protecting the baby, and how the baby is developing and able to become an adult, it's vital," Alessandra explains.

Maternal behaviour is closely connected to population health and conservation. And each mother has her own personality.

"We have Maria, we have Sheron, Fernanda, and all of them are very different when they are taking care of their babies," Alessandra says. "It's fascinating to see."

Alone but not abandoned

One of the most important lessons from Alessandra's research has a particularly practical message. What should you do if you see a baby giant anteater alone?

It may be tempting to assume that the baby has been abandoned and needs rescuing. But this is not necessarily the case.

Mother giant anteaters need to leave their babies while they go out to forage. Carrying a baby everywhere would require additional energy so the mother carefully chooses a safe place where the youngster can remain while she feeds.

"The mother finds a place that she's confident the baby's going to be well in," says Alessandra.

Sometimes, the mother may remain away for as long as 24 hours. During this period, people may encounter the baby and mistakenly believe it has been abandoned. Intervening can disrupt a completely natural process.

As the baby reaches around three to four months old, it also begins exploring more independently. This can take it further from the nest and expose it to additional risks, including predation or human interference.

But the mother's absence does not necessarily mean that something is wrong.

"She knows what she's doing. It's a natural behaviour for the mother."

Young giant anteaters generally remain with their mothers for between five and nine months. At Alessandra's study site, the average is around six months, although this can vary depending on the landscape.
 

The many roles of the tail

The giant anteater's enormous, bushy tail is one of its most distinctive features. It is well known for helping the animal stay warm acting almost like a blanket.

But Alessandra's research has shown that the tail has an important role in maternal behaviour too. Newborn giant anteaters are particularly vulnerable and need warmth. The mother's tail can provide a protective covering for the baby, keeping it warm as it develops.

But the tail is also used to communicate. If a baby wants to climb onto its mother's back and the mother does not want it to, she can raise her tail. "She's saying no, not now," Alessandra explains.

The tail can even be used to keep the baby cool. Brazil can be extremely hot particularly in the open landscapes where the research takes place. Alessandra observed mothers moving their tails back and forth like a fan to help cool their offspring.
"We found that the tail has 11 different behaviour postures," she says. "It is so important as part of maternal behaviour as well."

These findings could have implications for the rehabilitation of rescued giant anteaters. A serious tail injury may affect much more than an animal's ability to balance or keep warm - it could interfere with essential maternal behaviours.
 

More than 60 behaviours

The more Alessandra observes giant anteaters, the more there is to discover.

She is currently working on a paper describing the different behavioural postures displayed by mothers, babies and mother-offspring pairs.

"We have more than 60 postures now," she says. "This will be the most descriptive paper on that topic."

She is also investigating whether individual mothers have different styles of caring for their young. Two of the females monitored by ICAS, Sheron and Maria, appear to have notably different relationships with their offspring.

"I was able to see it, but I have to do some statistical analysis to confirm that they are different."

If confirmed this could provide further insight into individual personalities and differences in maternal behaviour among giant anteaters.

Special moments in the field

For Alessandra one of the great joys of this work is being able to return to the field and watch a baby develop over time.
"It's very nice to come back month to month and see the development of the baby," she says.

At one or two months old, a baby may seem relatively inactive. By the third month, its behaviour begins to change, and it becomes increasingly active and exploratory.

Some moments are particularly memorable. One of Alessandra's favourites was the first time she saw a giant anteater breastfeeding in the wild.

"I heard this behaviour described in many different ways but never had the opportunity to witness it before," she recalls. "And finally, the female just did this in front of me and it was amazing."

She also became able to recognise when a baby was breastfeeding beneath its mother's tail because its movements were noticeably different.

Another special memory involves Sheron, one of the females being monitored by ICAS. "Sheron was a very special female for me. She plays a lot with her babies."

Sheron is particularly patient with her young, allowing them to climb over her head, tail and belly. "She has a lot of patience with her babies," Alessandra says.

These individual personalities are another reminder that wildlife behaviour can be far more complex than we sometimes realise.

The challenge of studying behaviour

Fieldwork with giant anteaters requires patience, concentration and resilience.

Researchers may spend many hours standing quietly in the hot Brazilian sun, carefully watching an animal without disturbing it and without missing a moment.

"You have to be a very silent person and resilient enough to be still in the hot sun of Brazil," Alessandra says.

She believes one of the biggest challenges comes after the fieldwork: ensuring that behavioural research receives the recognition it deserves.

Ethological research can be difficult to publish because researchers may observe a behaviour only once or a handful of times.

"We witness things that we have just seen one time and it's difficult to say - this is a thing that the species does," Alessandra explains.

Even when researchers have photographs, videos and detailed descriptions, behavioural observations are sometimes considered less robust than large ecological datasets.

"This is very challenging for me because we have images, videos, tables describing all the different mother and baby postures, for example, but this isn't always seen as science."

For Alessandra, however, these observations are essential. Without carefully documenting behaviour, we cannot fully understand how animals live, reproduce and survive in the wild.
 

Beyond the beautiful image

Giant anteaters face a range of threats including road mortality and habitat loss. Much conservation work therefore focuses on the causes of death and the challenges facing populations.

But Alessandra believes it is equally important to understand the positive side of the story - the behaviours that allow giant anteaters to survive and reproduce.

"I would like people to understand that this beautiful scene they have in their minds, of the baby on the back of the mother and the bond between them, means much more than that."

"It means energy investment, protection, perpetuation of this species, population viability."

The familiar image of a baby riding on its mother's back represents an enormous investment by the mother and one of the most important stages in the continuation of the species.

"When we work with the road mortalities, it's mostly bad news, but when we work with the maternal behaviour, we have a lot of great news on this species."

For Alessandra, these two sides of conservation work complement each other.

"We have some hope. It's important to see this other side of the species and bring some light to this important part of natural history of giant anteaters."