Re: How many ants can a thorny devil eat per day?

Dear Warren,

Thanks for giving me a chance to learn more about a really interesting 
lizard!  

As it turns out, the thorny devil, also known as the moloch, can eat up to 
45 ants per minute.  Considering that these lizards are only four to six 
inches long, that's really incredible.  Thorny devils sit and eat ants for 
considerable lengths of time.  Some scientists say they can eat from 675 
to as many as 2500 ants in one meal!  Can you imagine eating that many of 
anything, all in one sitting?  I can't.

If you'd like to learn more about thorny devil biology, I've included 
links to three Web sites with lots of information about these lizards.  
Dr. Pianka's page includes tons of detailed information about thorny devil 
feeding biology.  The other two are also very helpful.  They have great 
pictures too.

Have fun learning!


Australia's Thorny Devil by Eric R. Pianka  http://uts.cc.utexas.e
du/~varanus/moloch.html

 http://home.mira.net/~
areadman/thorny.htm

World Wide Fund for Nature - Moloch/Thorny Devil site http://panda.org/kids/wil
dlife/fmthdev.htm