The Giant Anteater is native to a variety of habitats in Central and South America including open grasslands, tropical forests and tropical scrublands.

The Giant Anteater is incredibly gentle and moves slowly and unobtrusively in its useful, pest-controlling quest for food. Usually a solitary animal, the Giant Anteater spends most of the day sleeping and traveling from one food source to another. These include anthills and termite mounds. The Giant Anteater will rip open the insect mound with its claws and stick its long snout and tongue inside in order to extrude the ants or termites. They remain only briefly at each feeding site, probably just long enough to receive only a few insect bites before moving on when the attack escalates. One Giant Anteater will eat around 30,000 insects each day. These animals have also been known to eat beetles and occasionally some fruits. When resting, the Giant Anteater will scrape out a shallow depression in the soil in which to lie. It will then cover its head and body with its long, thick tail! Giant Anteaters rest between 14 and 15 hours each day on average. They are preyed upon by such predators as the jaguar or puma. Because of their sharp claws, they may prove a formidable defensive fighter. In general, the Giant Anteater is extremely docile and difficult to rouse. It walks on its wrists with its claws tucked under, and when alarmed can gallop at quick speeds, their preferred method of defense. Giant Anteaters are not territorial, but will select home ranges in which they will live. They ignore other Anteaters outside of the breeding season. Although Giant Anteaters usually do not climb trees, they can climb out of enclosures and can even swim!

Giant Anteaters have long, coarse hair that is so thick and stiff that it protects the animal from ant bites. The hair on their tails is especially long. Giant Anteaters can grow to lengths of 82 inches, though they average about 70. Usually, they weigh between 40 and 85 pounds. Giant Anteaters are a grayish color and are marked by a wide black stripe bordered on each side by thinner white stripes. Their bodies are narrow and their limbs are fairly short, terminating in sharp claws used to dig or rip open termite mounds. Giant Anteaters have long snouts and very long tongues. Their saliva is sticky and the tongue is covered in tiny hairs that point backwards to trap insects. This tongue can stick out 24 inches and can be poked in and out up to 150 times each minute! The insects are crushed by papillae inside the mouth and are further broken up inside the stomach. Giant Anteaters have such well-developed senses of hearing and sight that they can pinpoint the location of a sound occurring up to five miles away.

Because of their gentle natures, Giant Anteaters are quite easy to kill and are often hunted for sport. Sometimes the Giant Anteater is hunted for meat and skin, and these animals may also be killed because they are falsely believed to kill dogs or cattle. Their fur is highly flammable and they are particularly vulnerable in range fires. Giant Anteaters are listed as a vulnerable species by CITES. They are also known as Ant Bears.

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Generally, a Giant Anteater bears one young and carries it on her back. They may bear one baby as often as every nine months, and usually breeding occurs year round. Giant Anteaters have a gestation period of about 190 days. Although the baby is weaned at two months of age, it will remain with the mother until she breeds again.