The Termite Hoover
17 April, 2026
India, Wildlife, National Park, Tiger Reserve, Wildlife Photography, Wildlife Safari, WildinSoul, Satpura, Sloth Bears, Madhya Pradesh
1.
The termite hoover:
If you don’t get distracted by the peeking baby and enlarge the image a bit, you will see the mom’s mouth is crawling with termites.
Sloth bears act like living vacuum cleaners to eat termites, using specialized, missing upper incisors and highly mobile, muscular lips to create a powerful sucking mechanism like a vacuum cleaner . They tear open hard termite mounds with their 3-inch claws, then blow away dust and debris before inhaling termites through their muzzle, creating a loud noise audible from far.
While they eat fruits, flowers, and sometimes carrion, termites are a year-round staple, often making up 90% of their diet when fruit is not in season.
They possess a keen sense of smell to locate nests, and their long, curved claws are used to dig through concrete-like, hard termite mounds.