With their long snouts, rabbit-like ears, and shovel-like claws, aardvarks look like they were assembled from spare animal parts. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, these nocturnal diggers are built almost entirely around one job: finding and eating ants and termites.
Despite their odd appearance, aardvarks are one of nature's great specialists. Here are the real facts behind these unique mammals.
Aardvarks are nocturnal, spending the night foraging and the day resting in burrows to avoid the African heat.
The name "aardvark" comes from Afrikaans and means "earth pig," a nod to their pig-like snout and burrowing habits.
They're sometimes called "antbears" because ants and termites make up the bulk of their diet.
Aardvarks have a poor sense of sight and hearing but an excellent sense of smell, which they use to locate insect colonies underground and at the surface.
They are powerful diggers, using strong claws to excavate burrows for shelter, sleeping, and raising young, as well as to break into termite mounds.
Aardvarks are solitary animals that come together mainly to mate, and each individual maintains and scent-marks its own territory.
Lions, leopards, hyenas, and pythons are among the aardvark's main predators.
An aardvark's tongue can extend up to about 12 inches (30 centimeters) to sweep up insects from tunnels and mounds.
Their skin is thick and tough, helping protect them from ant and termite bites while they feed and dig.
A single aardvark can eat tens of thousands of ants and termites in one night.
The IUCN lists the aardvark as a species of "Least Concern," though habitat loss and declining prey can affect local populations.
Aardvarks belong to their own mammalian order, Tubulidentata, and are the only living species in it.
Their scientific name is Orycteropus afer, and they are not closely related to pigs, anteaters, or aardwolves despite superficial similarities.
Aardvark teeth are unusual: they lack enamel and true roots, instead being made of clusters of tube-like structures called vasodentine.
Aardvarks typically live around 18 years in the wild and can live over 20 years, sometimes into their 20s, in captivity.
Abandoned aardvark burrows provide important shelter for many other African animals, including warthogs, hyenas, and various reptiles.
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