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College students won’t be the only ones with odd roommate situations this fall. Eury the 8-year-old giant anteater met his new roomies, maned wolves Luna and Nena, this week at the Natural Science Center. The trio is sharing a habitat similar to the South American grasslands, where their species are native.

Zookeeper Jenny Dvorak said Eury offers zoo visitors another animal to learn about and helps enliven the exhibit. Luna and Nena have that nocturnal party-girl nature and spend most of the day getting in their beauty sleep. Eury is a daytime guy, but not unlike his college coed counterparts, he’s not real big on mornings.

“All the other animals are up and ready when we come to them in the morning except Eury,” Dvorak said. Zookeepers have to clap and call his name before he decides to come out of the enclosure he sleeps in.

Eury is the latest addition to the zoo, which has been open since summer 2007. He arrived from a Florida zoo last month and was held in a quarantine area near the wolves so they could get acclimated before putting them into the exhibit together Wednesday.

The wolves’ exhibit opened in April.

Dvorak said other zoos have paired the two animals together successfully. The wolves are curious about Eury and have even nipped at him, but zoo officials say the roughly 60-pound wolves will keep their distance from 135-pound Eury.

Kids and adults alike were curious about the strange pairing. Lynsey Sharpstene, 7, said Eury was her favorite animal she’d seen at the zoo.

“I think it has elephant feet,” she said.

Giant anteaters have three 3-inch-long claws used to dig out ants and termites. They protect their claws by walking on their knuckles.

Dvorak said having Eury has helped many at the zoo cope with the death of the zoo’s two gibbons. The animals died in July during a routine physical while under anesthesia. The specific cause of death has not been determined.

Dvorak worked closely with the gibbons and said she went to see Eury shortly after hearing about their deaths. She said the giant anteater has a special place in her heart.

“Having Eury here, having the wolves here, the tigers, having all the animals here really helped,” she said.

Eury could find himself the godfather of a couple of pups before too long. The zoo hopes to move one of the wolves out and bring in a boyfriend to participate in a breeding program within a year. Dvorak said they don’t anticipate needing to move Eury out.

For now, it seems these unlikely roomies will spend time sharing a plush pad and the attention of visitors.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com