The Silky Anteater is the world's smallest anteater, the size of a large mouse, with golden silky fur and a prehensile tail that it uses to grip branches as it moves through the forest canopy. It is entirely nocturnal and arboreal, rarely descending to the ground, and uses its hook-like claws to tear into arboreal ant and termite nests. It reaches the forests of southern Mexico at the northern edge of its range.
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