When asked about his fascination with the animal by [Dick] Cavett, the artist describes anteaters as “angelic.” A master of PR, Dalí knew well by this stage in his career the marketability of his eccentricities but even so, his longstanding affinity to anteaters does seem earnest, and certainly well-documented.
Photo: Salvador Dalí walking a giant anteater in Paris, 1969.
I always try to share the opportunity, but I'm much more comfortable with seizing the rare opportunity for the story, hence the hippo boop, and I also kissed the nose of a shark I caught fishing (somewhere in the 2-3 foot range). Other stuff like the big tarantulas or hissing roaches were just too high on the creepy crawly scale for them. The hissing roach was surprisingly friendly for an invertebrate.