Ever since I learned about baby giant anteaters riding around on their moms' back, I've been obsessed with seeing one. Since I was out in the jungle in Nicaragua when this happened, I contented myself with imagining what it would look like. When I came back to the wonderful world of youtube, I immediately started watching videos. It was even better than I expected! I also discovered a video of a baby anteater from the Santa Ana Zoo, which is about an hour south of LA, or roughly between LA and Oceanside, where I live during the summer and my field season. I've been scheming to visit, calculating how old the baby is (they ride on the mom's back until they are about 10 months old) to make sure I could see some awesome animal stacking in action. Luckily, the little guy was born in November(ish), so I figured he would be about 8 months old in June. Plenty young to still get piggy back rides. Right?
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| Anteater "baby". Almost the same size as the adults, seemingly way too large to be carried. |
We arrived at the zoo and made a beeline for the anteaters. When we got to their exhibit, I was so disappointed to see how big the baby was. He was practically the same size as his mom! They were each walking around on their own, and I thought for sure we had missed the opportunity to see them stack. They were still awesome, and I was still happy, though it wasn't "the greatest thing ever".
After a lunch break and checking out some other animals we stopped by the anteaters again. Still both standing on their own, but now the baby was following mom around. They went out of sight for a few minutes, and we heard what sounded like a frustrated squeal. Was he trying to get a ride?! I waited with anticipation to see them return. And- OHMYGOODNESS!!! This ridiculous lumbering baby had convinced her to carry him around. And it was THE GREATEST THING EVER.
(I was quite overcome with excitement. These photos were taken by Dave, who was a great sport and also enjoyed watching them for about an hour).
