New record of giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla (Pilosa, Myrmecophagidae) in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The giant anteater ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is the largest living anteater, which due to several anthropic impacts, is threatened with extinction. So far, there was only one locality with a confirmed record of M. tridactyla in Northeast of Brazil. We present a new direct record of the species in Brazilian Northeast, registered in July 2017 by camera trap, in an arboreal caatinga area, municipality of Sento Sé, Bahia. This record is the second one of the species in the Caatinga Biome and confirms the occurrence of M. tridactyla in the state of Bahia. It constitutes the first direct record of M. tridactyla in more than 13 years of monitoring in the study area, suggesting that the species is locally rare.