If an anteater is encountered by army ants, what will happen?
Interesting question. The Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is purely insectivorous and is specially adapted to eating ants and termites. In most cases no insect would stand a chance against them but Army ants (the name army ants is applied to over 200 species of ants but I'm going to assume the species you mean is Eciton burchellii) aren'yt just any ordinary ants. Eciton burchellii travel in huge legions and will attack animals larger than themleseves in massive swarms. One Giant Anteater versus an entire colony of army ants, I'd say the Eciton burchellii win. The anteater would put a major dent in the colony's forces by eating a lot of them but there would be too many and as soon as they got in the anteaters fur they would bite multiple times and make the swarm all over the anteater. The Giant Anteater would be overwhelemed by the bites and retreat.
Anteater vs a large army of siafu ants: who would win?
Oh damn, haha, didn't do enough research before asking this question! "Giant anteaters have thick, tough skin to help protect them against ant bites from ants such as army ants. Even with this layer of protection, they cannot endure bites from large numbers of ants for very long." http://www.theanimalspot.com/giantanteat... Keep the creative answers coming though (;
Could an anteater be killed by ants?
An anteater is a pretty large animal, and so it won’t be as affected by the venom of most ants as the prey the ants are used to. They have a very effective means of eating ants, as they can eat 30,000 a day. However, if a huge swarm of them is provoked, they might stand a chance…not. The anteater has a dense, thick coating of fur around it that completely prevents and negates insect attacks. Goes to show how beneficial natural selection can be. Anteaters-1, ants-0.
Can a giant anteater get a hearty meal out of army ants, or are the ants too aggressive for the anteater?
Probably yes and no. Army ants are very aggressive and even a giant anteater would likely get out of their way, but probably wouldn’t turn down the little snacks in it’s shaggy protective hair.OTOH, in spite of it’s name, the Anteater’s prime source of protein is termites.
Can an elephant kill an ant?
Army ants are dangerous because they are voracious and swarm in huge numbers over whatever they come across. I think a colony can strip a cow to the bone in a matter of hours. That said, this is one of those situations where guessing at the outcome is, well, guess work. Yes, they have very powerful jaws, and 2 million is a very large number. At the same time, the Elephant's skin is very tough and thick, so they are not going to be chewing through it any time soon, and its trunk will actually allow it to brush them off much more effectively than most other animals would be able too. And, of course, it should be able to stomp them somewhat effectively with its feet. Then there's just the fact that an Elephant is huge and inflicting enough damage to it to kill it would take a lot of time and effort. Yes the ants are persistent, but they'll still wear out after a while. One issue is what it would take for the army ants to lose cohesion. It sounds like they really act somewhat like a military force, so they might eventually "break rank" if enough are killed (particularly if the queen is among them). The question is if the Elephant can hold out long enough and kill enough of them to get to this point. Of course, it's fairly likely that the elephant will just panic and start thrashing around randomly, wasting a lot of energy and maybe even hurting itself. This would probably give the ants a good chance of winning, though again, it would take quite a while to kill something as large and tough as an elephant.
Does an anteater get bitten when they eat ants?
Yes, but they probably have some built-in protection to the bites, "To keep the feeding frenzy at a high pitch, the anteater was equipped with massive salivary glands—also stretching from his mouth to his chest—that provided extraordinary volumes of a gluelike saliva not found in any other mammal. He literally smothered the ants in slime, swallowing them whole for grinding between his reinforced, muscular stomach walls. Scientists guess that this saliva may help neutralize the fire ants’ powerful stinging bites, which can cause painful side effects in humans." http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/arti...
Ants -- siafu?
Anyone who has ever lived in Africa can tell you many stories about pinching ants. Pinching ants are called "siafu" in Swahili, the trade language of East Africa. They are also sometimes called safari ants. The pinching ants, sometimes erroneously called army ants, would come in columns maybe 12 inches wide and up to 200 feet long. When they reached a home, they would enter and swarm all over the inside of the house. They would eat everything in sight that moved. They eat very little regular food, but they would eat all mice, scorpions, spiders, etc. They kill and eat dogs and cats if they were trapped in the house also. In the older times of missionary work, before poisons were available, the missionaries would simply move out and let the ants do their work. They would be done and move on in as little as two days, and when the missionaries moved back in, the house would be free of varmints for a long time. When pinching ants get on you, they don't bite at once. The ants climb up inside your clothes, and you never feel them. They seem to give a signal, and suddenly they ALL start biting at once. They have huge pinchers, and they grab hold and don't let go.