29 November: World Anteater Day

Today is World Anteater Day. Here are ten things you might not know about anteaters:

1. The anteater is part of the suborder Vermilingua, which appropriately means "worm tongue."

2. They are related to Sloths and armadillos.

3. There are four species of anteater: the giant anteater, silky anteater, northern tamandua, and southern tamandua.

4. Their sense of smell is 40 times greater than that of a human. This means they can tell which kind of insect lives in a mound or nest before they rip it open.

5. Their tongues are up to 2 feet long and covered in spines. Their saliva is sticky. All adaptations to help them obtain their food.

6. The average giant anteater eats up to 30,000 Ants and Termites in a day. However, ants and termites aren’t necessarily the only things on their menu. They have been known to scavenge fruit, bird eggs, worms, other insects, and even Bees. They get most of their Water from their food and so don’t drink very much.

7. They are edentate, which means that like their cousins the sloths and armadillos, they don’t have any teeth.

8. They do have claws, though only on their front feet. Their claws are razor sharp and are used to rip open insect nests and to fight off predators. When they walk, anteaters curl their feet into balls to keep the claws protected and prevent them from dulling.

9. They have the lowest body temperature of any mammal: approximately 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 33 degrees Celsius. This means they have to conserve energy and so they sleep a lot and usually move very slowly. However, if something frightens them, they can run at up to 30mph.

10. The anteater can take a fertilized egg and store it for later use. The egg remains in the anteater’s uterus until conditions are favourable. Female anteaters deliver their babies standing up, using their tail for support. They have only one baby at a time, and the newborns are called pups.

Character birthday

Displacer, a member of Combat Team Gamma. He teleports by means of a bio integrated teleport gun. He was discovered by Swallow and Fixer, dishevelled and afraid, after he tried to steal Fixer's car. He was found to have clear memories of his life up to a few days after graduation but nothing over the intervening nine years. He had no idea who he was running from, why he was stealing the car, or how he came to be in possession of a fully functional teleport gun.

Doctors diagnosed severe post traumatic stress disorder and could do nothing but wait to see if his memory returned on its own.

When he attempted to make contact with his family and former girlfriend, he discovered they had all been brutally murdered and that he was the prime suspect. The nature of his weapon was discovered when, as a result of this, he attempted to commit suicide, but only succeeded in teleporting himself outside into the rain.

DNA evidence eventually cleared him of the crimes but they remain unsolved.

While he does not use genetic variant powers in combat, he does have a genetic variance which causes his eyes to change colour according to his mood: when happy or contented, blue; moments of intense bliss or joy, bright cornflower blue; when sad, brown, when unsure or puzzled, hazel, when angry, green, when afraid, grey.