AnimalGlobe: Aardvark or Antbear

About

Aardvarks live throughout Africa, south of the Sahara. They are not found around equatorial forest and northern desert regions. It is very adaptable and can be found in a habitat where the soil is loose and where there is sufficient ants or termites, which is its principle diet. Their name comes from South Africa's Afrikaans language and means "earth pig." A glimpse of the aardvark's body and long snout brings the pig to mind. On closer inspection, the aardvark appears to include other animal features as well. It boasts rabbitlike ears and a kangaroo tail. However, the aardvark is not closely related to the pig; rather, it is the sole recent representative of the obscure mammalian order Tubulidentata, in which it is usually considered to form a single variable species of the genus Orycteropus, coextensive with the family Orycteropodidae. Nor is the aardvark closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, along with the Sirenians, hyraxes, tenrecs and elephants.

Behavior and food

Aardvarks are nocturnal. They spend the hot African afternoon holed up in cool underground burrows dug with their powerful feet and claws that resemble small spades. After sunset, aardvarks put those claws to good use in acquiring their favorite food—termites. Termites are eaten predominately in the rainy season and ants during the dry season. As soon as a colony (ant or termite) has been found, it uses its long sticky tongue to eat the insects, eggs and larvae. The Antbear's teeth are poorly developed so it will only eat insects and soft fruits. The only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber. An aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range encompassing 10 to 30 kilometers, swinging its long nose from side to side to pick up the scent of food. When a concentration of ants or termites is detected, the aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs, keeping its long ears upright to listen for predators, and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long, sticky tongue—as many as 50,000 in one night have been recorded.

Female aardvarks typically give birth to one newborn each year. The young remain with their mother for about six months before moving out and digging their own burrows, which can be extensive dwellings with many different openings.

Habitat

Aardvarks live in subsaharan Africa, where there is suitable habitat for them to live, such as savannas, grasslands, woodlands and bushland, and available food (i.e., ants and termites).

Predators

The aardvark's main predators are lions, leopards, hyenas, hunting dogs and pythons. Aardvarks can dig fast or run in zigzag fashion to elude enemies, but if all else fails, they will strike with their claws, tail and shoulders, sometimes flipping onto their backs to lash with all fours. Their thick skin also protects them to some extent.

Quick Facts

Type: Mammal

Diet: Omnivore

Average lifespan in captivity: 23 years

Size: Head and body, 43 to 53 in (109 to 135 cm); Tail, 21 to 26 in (53 to 66 cm)

Weight: 110 to 180 lbs (50 to 82 kg)

Did you know?

An aardvark's tongue can be up to 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) long and is sticky to help extract termites from their mound.

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