A cub stays with its mother until the next breeding season. It can dig its own burrow by six months of age and will leave its mother before it is one year old. The only habitats aardvarks avoid are swamps and lowlands, where they can't burrow their holes to a sufficient depth without hitting water. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, Black Mamba Snake Facts: Separating Myth From Reality, Monotremes, the Unique Egg-Laying Mammals, Macroscopic and Microscopic Study of the Tongue of the Aardvark (Orycteropus Afer, Orycteropodidae), Ecosystem Engineering through Aardvark (Orycteropus Afer) Burrowing: Mechanisms and Effects, The Feeding Ecology of the Aardvark Orycteropus Afer, M.S., Applied Ecology, Indiana University Bloomington, B.S., Biology and Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 13. This is largely thanks to its 30 centimeter long sticky tongue. Aardvarks are considered to be a primitive form of hoofed mammal, not because of any obvious similarities but instead due to subtle characteristics of their brain, teeth, and musculature. Aardvarks can break into termite mounds, which are sometimes as hard as concrete, and eat the entire colony. This gives the local insect population a chance to rebound. They don’t live in swamps and rocky terrain where it’s hard to dig burrows. The "earth pig" is occasionally referred to by other picturesque names, such as the African ant bear and the cape anteater, but only "aardvark" ensures its pride of place at the beginning of English dictionaries and comprehensive, A to Z lists of animals. Aardvarks have four toes on the front feet and five toes on their back feet. At birth the claws are already well developed. 6. Instead of having a pulp cavity, each tooth has a cluster of very thin, upright, hexagonal parallel tubes of vesodentin, which is a slightly modified version of dentine. Aardvarks forage at night, covering distances of 2 to 5 km each night. Interesting Aardvark Facts: Aardvark reaches 43 to 53 inches in length (from head to tail) and weigh of 110 to 180 pounds. The skin, claws, and teeth are used to make bracelets, charms and curious and some medicinal purposes. Due to the their ancient genome, aardvark’s are the most closely related to elephants. This sample is exclusively for KidsKonnect members!To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup for free (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download! Its forelegs are shorter than its rear legs. The aardvark is the only living species of the Tubulidentata order. Their burrows can be classified according to function: for foraging, for resting or refuge from predators, and for permanent settlement. Aardvarks Have the Best Sense of Smell in the Animal Kingdom. The aardvark’s coat is scant and yellowish gray; the face and tail tip may be whitish. Aardvarks are rarely seen, rather their presence is indicated by their tracks, burrows, and scratch marks left by their powerful claws. Aardvarks are extraordinarily fast diggers and can excavate a hole 2 feet deep in less than 30 seconds. It is important that their habitat is full of ants and termites (their food). An animal as big as an aardvark needs a comparably roomy burrow, which explains why the homes of these mammals can measure up to 30 or 40 feet in length. At three months they are weaned and at six months they are ready to leave their mothers. Aardvarks reproduce sexually and form pairs only for a short time during the breeding season. 2. Not ready to purchase a subscription? They tend to avoid very rocky terrain because rocks are difficult to dig in, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Aardvarks burrow under the ground to stay out of the heat during the day. (Toward the end of the series, it was revealed that a handful of other supernatural aardvarks lived in Cerebus' fictional world. It is pale yellowish gray in color and becomes reddish-brown by being stained by soil. A female aardvark has one baby each year. Madagascar also has a remarkable insect-eating family, the tenrecs (animals with long pointed snouts, some of which are spiny and tailless).…, …a single living species, the aardvark. It uses its nose and ears to search for food. If you want more details, you'll have to plow through the thousands of pages of this opus yourself. Skeletal remains of an aardvark that shows its back teeth. The aardvark’s name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch language and means "earth pig," according to National Geographic. However, there are some truly bizarre facts you should know about these African mammals, ranging from the size of their underground burrows to their predilection for the aardvark cucumber. Solitary, nocturnal mammals, aardvarks spend the daylight hours safely tucked away inside their borrows and emerge to feed during the late afternoon or early evening. 20. The 15 or so extant species of aardvarks belong to the mammalian order Tubulidentata, classified under the genus name Orycteropus (Greek for "burrowing foot"). The aardvark is a small nocturnal animal that lives almost exclusively in Africa. They can eat up to 50,000 insects each night, according to the Wildscreen Arkive. Aardvarks play a very important role in the African ecosystem because their abandoned burrows are used by many other African animals. The face is narrow with an elongated snout, very reduced eyes, and ears up to 24 cm (9.5 inches) long. These are ready-to-use Aardvark worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the aardvarks which are tough, burrowing mammals that originated in Africa. Their burrows can have numerous entrances. And in any case, this mammal derives most of the moisture it needs from its tasty diet. 5. This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about aardvark across 25 in-depth pages. Instead, food is ground up in a muscular area of its lower stomach. Aardvarks live up to 23 years when held in captivity. Fossils indicate that Tubulidentata was recognizable about 54 million years ago. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/animal/aardvark, World Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Aardvark, aardvark - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), aardvark - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). It can be found across the African continent except for places that are for the most part rocky. The name aardvark—Afrikaans for “earth pig”—refers to its piglike face and burrowing habits. What is an Aardvark? The head of this mythological figure vaguely resembles that of an aardvark, which would make sense if, say, ancient Egyptian merchants brought back tales of aardvarks from their trading journeys south. Suitable habitats of aardvarks are grasslands, woodlands, and savannas. Their teeth lack enamel and, as a result, wear down and must regrow continuously—the teeth are tubular and hexagonal in cross-section. Aardvarks are mammals that look like they were made from parts of other animals. They often change burrows. Aardvarks are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Like many nocturnal animals, aardvarks have a keen sense of smell and very good hearing. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Their long, serpentine tongue (10–12 inches) is sticky and can gather up ants and termites with great efficiency. The aardvark excavates branching burrows, usually 2–3 metres long but sometimes up to 13 metres, with several sleeping chambers. The time it stands on its soles is when an aardvark squats. You might think dogs have the best sense of smell of any animal, but your beloved pet has nothing on the average aardvark. Their front claws are especially robust, enabling them to dig burrows and break open termite nests with ease. A motion-triggered camera captures an aardvark searching for food on the Serengeti. Aardvarks were formerly classified in the same group as armadillos, sloths, and anteaters. A cub becomes mature enough to dig burrows at six months. Aardvark’s have very unique teeth. When attacked it slashes with its formidable front claws. 3. Aardvarks serve as prey for many species such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, pythons, and hyenas. From head to rump, aardvarks are 43 to 53 inches (109 to 135 centimeters) long, and their tail adds another 21 to 26 inches (53 to 66 cm) to its length, according to National Geographic. Stay up to date on the coronavirus outbreak by signing up to our newsletter today. 9. Aardvark teeth are made into good luck charm bracelets by some African tribes. The aardvark is the sole surviving mammal species in its group, living a solitary, nocturnal existence; learn more interesting aardvark facts. A typical aardvark can devour up to 50,000 ants and termites a night, capturing these bugs with its narrow, sticky, foot-long tongue—and it supplements its insectivorous diet with bites of the aardvark cucumber, a plant that propagates its seeds via aardvark poop. It has a pig-like rubbery snout, a rabbits ears, the long sticky tongue of an anteater, and a naked tail like a opossum. If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source. Fun Facts about the Aardvark. 28. Together, these mammals form a group known as the Afrotheria. The face is narrow with an elongated snout, very reduced eyes, and ears up to 24 cm (9.5 inches) long. Aardvark’s don’t like the heat or the sun, so they spend the daylight hours in dark underground burrows that they dig. Aardvark is nocturnal (active during the night) and solitary animal (live on its own) which gathers with other aardvarks only during mating season. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Their ears are also very long and can grow up to 9.5 inches (24 cm) long, according to the Encyclopedia … Major identified threats to the aardvark are habitat loss through agriculture, and human and trapping for bush meat. 22. Aardvarks live in many different types of habitats, such as grasslands, savannas, rainforests, woodlands and thickets throughout Africa in the areas south of the Sahara. It's always a tricky matter to establish the origin stories of ancient deities, and the Egyptian god Set is no exception. The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for ‘earth pig’, because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a pig. The bones themselves don't augment the aardvark's sense of smell; rather, it's the epithelial tissues that line these bones, which cover a much larger area. 2. The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) (‘Digging foot’), sometimes called ‘antbear’ is a medium-sized mammal native to Africa.
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