Fun Animal Friday Tamandua Craft

You'll definitely want to tamanDUa this craft!

Activity best for children age 2 and up

The tamandua lives in the forest of Central and South America. They are happy up in the trees and down on the ground and their favorite food to eat is ants! It’s round mouth and a long sticky tongue helps the tamandua to catch and eat ants and termites . The tamandua has a very unusual adaptation for protecting itself from predators- a very strong “sticky” smell! This strong smell keeps any predators far away. A long thick tail that is used almost like an extra hand is very useful when climbing up in the trees. The tamandua has lots of thick coarse hairs to keeps ants from running all over it’s body. Let’s make a fun craft that celebrates this unusual and cute animal.

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Credit: Pacific Animal Productions

Materials you’ll need:

Colored paper – brown, black, red

Scissors

Glue stick

Markers or crayons

Directions

STEP 1
On a piece of brown paper have a grown-up draw the shape of the tamandua. It has a long fluffy body, long round nose and a long tail. Next, have a grown-up help you to cut out this shape.

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STEP 2
Use the red paper to make a long skinny tongue and the black paper to make some ants for your tamandua.  

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STEP 3
Using a glue stick, glue the tongue to the nose and then on the tongue glue some ants. You can use the markers to color in his eye, make some toes or add some patterns on his fur.

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