The Life of Aardvarks

Known by various slang names such as ant bear, earth pig or earth hog, aardvarks of the family Orycteropodidae, is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to the southern two-thirds of the African continent, as well as a member of the ancestral clade of animals that include elephants, manatees and hyraxes. An aardvark’s unusual appearance resembles that of a pig with rabbit-like ears and a kangaroo-like tail, although aardvarks have zero relationship to any of these species, nor are they related to anteaters other than their mutual choice of an insectivore diet.

Extensive Biomes

Surviving in a wide range of biomes, including grasslands, rainforests, savannas and woodlands, aardvarks are largely solitary animals who socialize with other aardvarks only when mating or raising their young, however, when populations grow dense, two to three aardvarks are known to share a single common burrow, which they rely on for protection from predators along with their nocturnal, crepuscular lifestyle. Known as myrmecophagous mammals who feed only on ants and termites, along with the occasional aardvark cucumber fruit, aardvarks possess long and sticky tongues, which they use to consume upwards of 50,000 termites a night, frequently foraging for up to three miles away from their burrows. Possessing keen smell and hearing, aardvarks also possess lousy colorblind eyesight that evolved only for night vision.

Tough Skin For a Reason

Known to communicate with each other through grunts and bleats, aardvarks possess special glands on their elbows and hips used for locating aardvarks of the opposite sex, while their thick and rough skin provides a natural defense from the bites of angry ants and termites. Mating in the summer or fall dependent on their geographic location, females gestate their young for seven months, before delivering a single sighted yet naked cub who survives on mother’s milk for the first two weeks of life. Consuming insects by three weeks of age, aardvarks are fully independent at six months old, reaching reproductive maturity at two years of age, before living an average lifespan of 18 to 24 years, making the life of aardvarks, an odd yet plentiful member of the Afrotropical realm.