Giant anteater
(Myrmecophaga tridactyla)
Individual
This release is about a young male giant anteater. At the time of release it was estimated he was about 7-8 months old (around 9.5 kg). He arrived in the rescue centre as a baby of 1-2 months old (estimation), following the death of his mom in a traffic accident. He was found and brought to a wildlife hospital, who called Merazonia to see if they could care for him. He spent around 5 months in the rescue centre and after that he was translocated to the ecological reserve of Sacha Lodge.​
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Housing and care
As a small baby, he was kept in a big crate during the time he was asleep. As he got older (and bigger) he changed to an enclosure of around 2x6x2m. During the day he was taken out for walks so he could find his own ants and termites. This would have been too much to supply for him. He never really liked termites much, but preferred ants and grubs. Since he was so young when he arrived, he also received goats milk as a replacement for milk he would get off his mom.
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As he got older, he got more independent and was often leading the walks. Only when it started getting darker he needed more guidance and was guided back towards his enclosure.
Release site
A translocation was needed to bring the giant anteater to a more suitable place for release. This was done because the place of his rehabilitation was on the limit of their range and possibly too high in altitude. Therefore, a translocation was arranged to the ecological reserve of Sacha Lodge, near Providencia, Ecuador. The ecological reserve covers an area of 2,000 hectares. The ecological reserve is located between several national parks and has the rio Napo flowing through it. It is a protected area of primary forest and the area is full of wildlife. A habitat assessment was executed before release, which showed that there is at least one adult female giant anteater in the area. There have also been sightings on trap cameras of jaguars and puma's, the natural predators of giant anteaters. A plentiful amount of termite and ants nests were located around the release area. Furtheremore, a water source was located within 10m of the original release site. The release site is located at an altitude of 220m above sea level, which is within the range of giant anteaters. Giant anteater home ranges vary between 5 and 25 square km, so the release area is large enough.
The giant anteater was released from his original crate, where he normally slept in. He could return to this crate at any time. Trap camera's were set up around to monitor him afterwards from a distance and for the first month he was fitted with a tracking device and he had a biologist check up on him.
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Pre-release adaptations
A soft release technique was chosen. This was according to advise from other rescue centres and based on his behaviour. The idea was to let him walk off by himself, when he did not need guidance anymore. His crate was left so he could return to the crate during the night. The criteria that needed to be met were that he could find sufficient amounts of food by himself (his weight was checked weekly to make sure he grew well) and he needed to show human avoidance behaviour. Predator response was also tested before release. This was done by placing the poo of a puma in an area and guiding him to this area to see his response. Before the translocation, a general health check was executed. This included testing for parasites, checking his weight and checking for any abnormalities.
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A few days before the release, the giant anteater was fitted with a selfmade harness with a VHF tracker (Telonics). This was tested and adjusted accordingly. He was almost completely weaned off his milk, but a little bit of milk was used in the first week of the release to show him where his crate was as he was translocated to a different area for release.
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Post-release
Two members of the staff of Merazonia accompanied him during his journey to the release site. They stayed with him for a week to make sure the tracker was working well and the biologist knew all about his behaviour and how to track him. His crate was opened and they waited outside to see how he responded. The initial response was to go to one of the persons who was there throughout his rehabilitation process. This only took a couple of seconds and then he started exploring the area by himself. During the first few days, he was monitored very closely and followed to get information about his feeding, active hours and general wellbeing. After the first 2 days, they started to increase the distance from him and first kept checking on him every 2 hours until that gradually became 3x a day. After a month his harness was taken off and the monitoring decreased to trap camera sightings.
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Trap cameras were installed, initially to see is there was any activity around his crate and to see if he woke up during the nights. After those first days there was one trap camera placed at his crate and one at a drinking spot so they could keep monitoring him without disturbing him.
About a month after his initial release, it was decided to carry his crate further away from any human activity. This was decided after there had been sightings from tourists and he didn't walk off. His harness was taken off as he'd grown a lot and this didn't fit him anymore. Staff of the ecological reserve installed several trap cameras around the reserve to check on the giant anteater, but there have been no more sightings on the trapcameras after 2 months after release. Guides of the lodge had reported to see him about 2 months after release and he went off to hide in the bushes. He was in good shape and appeared a lot bigger than when he was released.
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Things you would have done differently
In hindsight it would have been better to have somebody tracking him for a longer amount of time, guiding him further into the jungle. He was starting to wander off when he was in Merazonia, and since this was not an ideal environment for him it was decided to take him to the Sacha lodge ecological reserve. He is doing good there now, but longer term monitoring there would be valueble. Nevertheless, Merazonia thinks he is living a good life there, without any danger of humans doing him any harm.
