Fast Facts:

Aardvark

Special Features

Aardvarks resemble a large pig. It has short but sturdy legs. The aardvark's hind legs have five toes and are longer than the front ones, which have only four toes.

Its tongue, which is about 12" long, narrow, flat, and worm shaped, is used for gathering and eating its food. It does have an excellent sense of smell.

They are nocturnal animals with eyes only the size of a rabbit. In fact, the name tubulidentata - tube teeth - is derived from the unusual structure of them. They are rootless molars that have no enamel, just covered with cementum, and they grow during the aardvark's entire life. The teeth are actually columns that contain a central pulp chamber filled with cells, nerves, and blood vessels. In addition, there are usually five functional teeth on each side of the upper and lower jaws.

They are tremendous diggers. Aardvarks have powerful claws on their feet. The front ones are used for digging, and the back ones for pushing dirt away. They sometimes use their strong kangaroo-like tails to throw soil from the entrance of a tunnel - in fact, they can dig three feet of a tunnel in only 5 minutes. They avoid rocky terrain where they can't dig and wetlands where the water table is too high. They also shun high elevations because fewer termites live there.

Social Structure and Behavior

Aardvarks are not often seen in the wild because they are nocturnal animals by nature - they spend the day sleeping in their underground tunnels. During their lifetime, aardvarks apparently dig many underground tunnels, some very extensive with numerous openings. One was found to have 27 entrances, though probably not all connected underground.

Other wildlife benefit greatly from the deserted burrows. Many creatures take refuge in them during brush fires that otherwise would cost them their lives, while numerous others use them to escape from predators. However, it is mainly the warthogs that use the abandoned burrows for their homes - whole families of warthogs have been found living in abandoned aardvark tunnels.

Predators of the aardvark include lions, leopards, and hyenas, and occasionally pythons that eat the young aardvarks in their burrows. In addition, humans sometimes kill them for meat.

Aardvarks reach sexual maturity at about two years of age. The gestation period is seven months, with generally a single offspring being born. The young aardvark follows its mother on the hunt for food at about three weeks of age, but it will not eat termites until it is three months old.

At six months, the young male will leave his mother's tunnel to dig his own burrow a short distance away. Even at this time, however, the young male will continue foraging for food with his mother. When the mother conceives again, the young male will leave the area permanently.

By contrast, a young female will remain in her mother's tunnel until the mother conceives again. At that point, she will move out, choosing a new home close to her mother's. For this reason, an aardvark mother can be seen foraging for food with two young offspring of differing ages.

Although aardvarks are not considered to be territorial, the females seem to attach themselves to a particular location, whereas the males tend to wander more. They are solitary animals, coming together only for mating.