Tamanduas are tree-climbing anteaters native to South and Central America. One of their distinctive features is that they have freakishly long tongues.
A couple of tamanduas live at in the Rainforest Life area at ZSL London Zoo. One of their distinctive features is that they like to sleep on the lights high above the rainforest floor.
Two weeks ago, the couple (Ria and Tobi) had a baby (Star). A baby tamandua spends the first few months of life clinging to its mother’s back, so Star has to sleep on top of the lights too.
This afternoon, Ria went to stretch her legs and Star lost balance and fell off the light. Amazingly, Star fell onto a nearby branch and managed to cling on.
As should be clear by now, two-week-old tamanduas are not very good at clinging onto things. Amazingly, again, the zookeepers were just within reach to help out.
The zookeepers were able to pull the branch over to the balcony. Star kept good balance before being carried off to safety.
Safely carried back to the rainforest floor, Star just needed Ria’s back to climb onto. In the meantime, there were some safer low-level branches to explore.
Things started getting a bit awkward, though, as neither Ria nor Tobi seemed to have noticed that their baby had fallen and wasn’t with them any longer. The zookeepers had to keep Star safe while they figured out a plan to reunite the family.
How do you encourage a mother tamandua to climb down from her light/bed to the rainforest floor two storeys below in order to carry her baby to safety? Of course… you gaffer tape some food to the end of a very long stick and coax her to follow it down.
With the prospect of a tasty treat ahead of her, Ria made the precarious journey around the wire netting at the top of the rainforest. Taking the nearest solid branch, she eventually made her way down to be reunited with Star.
They might not have textbook parenting skills, but these tamanduas sure know to live adventurously. And all under the watchful eye of the fantastic ZSL zookeepers.
