Aardvark

Aardvarks

The aardvark’s name comes from the South African language of Afrikaans and means “earth pig.” The body and snout of the aardvark may resemble a pig’s but the ears look more like a rabbit’s and the tail looks as though it belongs to a kangaroo. The quirky thing is that the aardvark is not related to any of these animals. They are covered in a sleek, dark brown hair above thick skin. They have spade-shaped paws and sharp claws for digging. The aardvark also has a long, sticky tongue and ten molars with a coating of cementum instead of enamel like humans.

Aardvarks are shy, solitary, and nocturnal. This is one reason why little is known about aardvarks. They live in burrow up to 43 feet in length and sleep away the hot day. The come out at night to search for large termite mounds, their main source food. The aardvarks will dig into the mounds hard shells using their claws and slide in their long tongues once they have reached the interior. Some aardvarks have tongues up to a foot in length. To reach the mounds, they may travel several miles at night across grassland, savannahs, woodlands, or scrub depending on which area of Africa they live in. Aardvarks can be found from Egypt to South Africa.

Female aardvarks usually have one child per year. The mothers typically have a gestation period of seven months. They newborn will remain with its mother for six months before setting off to dig its own burrow. The burrows they dig will provide safety from lions, leopards, hyenas, pythons, and humans. Humans hunt the aardvark to gain its meat for food and other body parts, such as the teeth, for charms. The growing cities have also destroyed aardvark habitats but not much is being done at this time to prevent any further harm to aardvarks because of their least concern status on the IUCN Red List.