Facts on Aardvark

Facts on Aardvark

1. Do you know that powerful limbs and spade-like claws allow an aardvark to dig up to 60 cm in 15 seconds. It seals its nostrils while digging to prevent them from clogging up with dust.

2. They usually weigh between 130 to 180 pounds.

3. It is the only species in the genus Orycteropus, which is the only genus in the family Orycteropidae which, in turn, is the only family in the order Tubulidentata.

4. It is often assumed that they are related to South America’s anteaters. But the features that they have in common result from ‘convergent evolution’ and are simply shared adaptations to a diet of ants. In fact, they are completely unrelated to anteaters, and share a distant African ancestor with elephants, hyraxes and dugongs.

5. They have four toes on the front feet and five toes on their back feet.

6. Aardvarks are also called ant bears. Oh! That's an amazing fact right?

7. Skilled diggers, an aardvark can dig up to 2 (6 m) in 15 seconds, according to the African Wildlife Foundation.

8. They can seal their nostrils, to keep out dust and ants

9. Aardvarks can eat up to 60,000 ants and termites in one night.

10. They have poor eyesight but a very keen sense of smell and good hearing.

11. Their spoon-shaped claws are like steel – and used to rip into extremely hard ground and termite mounds

12. Their burrows, often in termite mounds, can be up to 13m long and have several entrances

13. They change burrows frequently, providing opportunity for subsequent residents like wild dogs, pythons, warthogs and South African shelduck

14. They are nocturnal and travel up to 16km every night, foraging for food

15. They grow up to 2m meters long and weigh up to 60kg

16. With the body of a pig, ears of a rabbit, tongue of an anteater and tail of a kangaroo, this creature is in fact the only species in its order and probably most closely related to elephants.

17. The name aardvark is derived from the Afrikaans words that translates as ‘earth pig’ or ‘ground pig’ because it creates burrows to live in.The earliest appearance of relatives of aardvarks can be traced back to the Paleocene era.

18. The aardvark looks like a pig even though it is not its close relative.

19. The tips of their snouts are particularly mobile.

20. It has a tail that is thick at the base and reduces in thickness towards its end. Also it has rabbit-like ears.