{"id":2191636,"date":"2026-07-03T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2191636"},"modified":"2026-07-11T21:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:49:35","slug":"the-biggest-claw-on-earth-is-an-enormous-20cm-long-and-shaped-like-a-scythe-what-its-used-for-may-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/the-biggest-claw-on-earth-is-an-enormous-20cm-long-and-shaped-like-a-scythe-what-its-used-for-may-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest claw on Earth is an enormous 20cm long and shaped like a scythe. What it&#8217;s used for may surprise you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is generally known that animals such as bears, tigers and sloths have exceptionally long claws. But the creature that holds the world record might surprise you.<\/p>\n<p>While two-toed and three-toed\u00a0sloths\u00a0have claws that grow between 7\u201310cm long, they aren&#8217;t the longest claws you&#8217;ll find in the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Grizzly bears\u00a0and\u00a0Siberia<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/whats-the-worlds-largest-cat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">n tigers<\/a>\u00a0generally have claws that are around 10cm. But the animal with the longest claws is a little less daunting these two\u00a0predators. The\u00a0giant armadillo\u00a0(<em>Priodontes maximus<\/em>) is generally recognised as the animal with the longest claws.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vets Examine Giant Armadillo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sEwdmbiq1s0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Residing in South America, the giant armadillo has a third, sickle-shaped claw that can be up to 20cm long. That claw comes in at around 22 per cent of the animal&#8217;s body length.<\/p>\n<p>The giant armadillo doesn&#8217;t tend to use its claws for self defence, but Instead to dig up ants, worms, spiders, snakes and plants to eat. It may not be an aggressive animal, but you definitely wouldn&#8217;t want to get a swipe from a giant armadillo.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the giant armadillo is also the mammal\u00a0with the most number of teeth.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/biggest-claws\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">article<\/a> by Daisy Bowie-Sell was first published by Discover Wildlife on 25 June 2026. Lead Image:\u00a0Kevin Schafer\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Make a donation<\/h2>\n<p>If you believe in our good work, please support us in any way you can. Your generosity allows us to work to protect wildlife and habitats. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" id=\"donorbox-popup-button-installer\"> <\/script><a id=\"preview_inline_popup_button\" class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #0dc5dc; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; display: flex; gap: 8px; width: fit-content; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; line-height: 24px; padding: 8px 24px;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?default_interval=m&amp;amount=25\" data-reminder-widget-enabled=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DONATE NOW<\/a><script type=\"module\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/widgets.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is generally known that animals such as bears, tigers and sloths have exceptionally long claws. But the creature that holds the world record might surprise you. While two-toed and three-toed\u00a0sloths\u00a0have claws that grow between 7\u201310cm long, they aren&#8217;t the longest claws you&#8217;ll find in the animal kingdom. Grizzly bears\u00a0and\u00a0Siberian tigers\u00a0generally have claws that are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":2192049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2026\/03\/Giant-armadillo.jpeg?w=1200&webp=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3680,5],"tags":[3400,4093,3401,4094,4095,4096,1520],"class_list":["post-2191636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-giant-armadillo","tag-grizzly-bears","tag-priodontes-maximus","tag-siberian-tigers","tag-sloths","tag-snakes","tag-spiders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2192049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}