This baby giant anteater loves her teddy bear so much
By: Amanda Kabbabe, Buzz60
Everyone has a security blanket. For one adorable baby anteater, it's her teddy bear.
Beanie is a young giant anteater who was born in late December.
Her mother, Inca, was unable to take care of her and so the staff at ZSL London Zoo stepped in to raise Beanie until she's big enough to return to her parents.
For now, the zoo staff has given Beanie a giant teddy bear to act as a surrogate mother and she can cuddle with it while she sleeps.
While Beanie weighed just 1.2 kilograms — or about 2.6 pounds — at birth, the little anteater already has some serious claws, which will help her dig for food.
Taking care of Beanie isn't easy. The staff has to bottle-feed her every two to three hours with special replacement milk while using an incubator to keep her warm at night.
On the zoo's website, Zookeeper Amy says, "Beanie has been practicing her digging skills on her teddy bear or even sometimes my shoulder!"
It looks like all that TLC is really working, because Beanie is now at the ideal weight for her age and is expected to grow to be about 7 feet long.
That's almost as long as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!
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