Flavia Miranda was hiking through dense vegetation in Brazil’s Parnaiba Delta when she suddenly stopped and plucked a wheat-colored ball of hair from a tangle of mangrove branches. When the tennis ball-sized Silkie anteater wakes from sleep, it raises its front legs defensively, like a boxer. Miranda, a conservation medicine researcher at Brazil’s Santa Cruz State University, carefully collected blood and fur samples before releasing the elusive animal into the forest.
Silkie anteaters are the smallest anteaters and first evolved 30 to 40 million years ago. Primarily solitary, nocturnal, and living in small fluffy canopies, this animal inhabits lowland rainforests and mangrove forests from southern Mexico to northern Bolivia. When not eating ants or termites, they spend most of their two-year lifespan sleeping.
Until recently, scientists believed that all silkworms belonged to the same species. But in 2017, Miranda et al. published a DNA analysis of silky anteaters from across the Americas, revealing seven distinct species.
“I always had a sense that there were multiple species,” says Miranda, who has studied sloths, anteaters and armadillos in Brazil for 30 years. “I noticed differences in the color of fur depending on the region.”
Miranda is now investigating the possibility that the sleepy animals he sampled in the Parnaiba delta, about 275 miles east of the city of San Luis in northeastern Brazil, are members of an eighth species.
The delta red anteater is isolated, living more than 1,000 miles from its closest known relatives in the Amazon Basin to the northwest and the rainforest swathes of the southeast along Brazil’s Atlantic coast. Miranda says this population may be a remnant from 11,000 years ago, when the Amazon rainforest extended as far as the Parnaiba delta.
So far, Miranda’s genetic analysis shows that the Delta population has diverged from other silky anteater species over about 2 million years. But to confirm that the Delta anteater forms a new species, DNA testing needs to be corroborated with physical characteristics. That’s why Miranda and her field assistant, Alexandre Martins, continue to collect blood samples and measure the animals they find in the mangroves. “At the very least, we are certain that this population is evolutionarily distinct and in the process of evolution. [a separate species],” she says.
Mariela Sperina, chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s anteater expert group, said Miranda’s research is groundbreaking. She said: “The Silkie anteater is the least studied of all anteaters. [sloths, anteaters and armadillos],” she says.
The dense mangroves in the Parnaiba Delta make it nearly impossible for Miranda and her colleagues to count the number of Delta anteaters. But since Miranda’s first visit in 2009, it has become clear that the delta is not a safe haven for anteaters. Locals cut down mangroves and use them for fences, houses, and boats. Farmers also allow cattle and pigs to roam freely in the delta, causing the livestock to overgraze and trample young trees.
In 2011, Miranda began recruiting communities to replant mangrove forests. Local residents began growing dispersal plants, or mangrove seedlings, in nurseries for reforestation of the delta and fenced off these areas from livestock. Soon the forest began to grow again. Although residents are primarily focused on protecting the mangroves, their continued efforts are also benefiting the black-bellied whale and other wildlife.
“The survival of our communities is threatened by climate change, sea level rise and storms,” says Paulinho Moro do Meio, a fisherman, tour guide and one of Miranda’s collaborators. . “[The mangroves] That is our best defense, and we are working hard to restore it. ”
But for Miranda, the delta sparked great interest in the undiscovered silky anteater, which probably occupies the dry forests between the Parnaiba delta and the remote rainforest. “I feel like the ‘missing link’ population is growing even more,” she says.
This article is from Hakai Magazine, an online publication about the science and society of coastal ecosystems. To read more articles like this, go to hakaimagazine.com.
Recommended videos