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Aardvarks

Aardvarks live throughout Africa, south of the Sahara. 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 rabbit like ears and a kangaroo tail, yet the aardvark is related to none of these animals.

The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for “earth pig” (aarde earth, varken pig), because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a domesticated pig. 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 Aardvark is also not related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a similar resemblance. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews (small insectivorous mammals native to Africa), the sirenians (herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers), hyraxes (herbivorous mammals that live in Africa and the Middle East), tenrecs (a family of mammals found on Madagascar and parts of Africa) and elephants.

The aardvark is a hairy, nocturnal (active at night), burrowing, insect-eating mammal from Africa. Aardvarks are 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to1.8 m) long which includes a 2 feet (0.6 m) long tail. They weigh about 140 pounds (64 kg). Aardvarks have a long, narrow snout, a long tongue and very sticky saliva, which are used in getting ants and termites, the mainstay of its diet. They have a sleek, dark brown coat, long ears, short legs with webbed 2nd and 3rd toes, and strong, sharp, hoof-like claws. It has 10 cheek teeth (and no incisors or canines) and bristles around its small mouth. Aardvarks have good sense of smell and hearing.

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. It is an exceptionally fast digger, but otherwise moves fairly slowly. Its claws enable it to dig through the extremely hard crust of a termite or ant mound quickly, avoiding the dust by sealing the nostrils.

In African folklore the aardvark is much admired because of its diligent quest for food and its fearless response to soldier ants. Hausa magicians make a charm from the heart, skin, forehead, and nails of the aardvark, which they then proceed to pound together with the root of a certain tree. Wrapped in a piece of skin and worn on the chest the charm is said to give the owner the ability to pass through walls or roofs at night. The charm is said to be used by burglars and those seeking to visit young girls without their parents’ permission.

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