Aardvark - Orycteropus afer

Image Credit: UnknownFrom Wiki: The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa.

The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth, varken pig), because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a domesticated pig. However, the aardvark is not closely related to the pig ... The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, along with the sirenians, hyraxes, tenrecs and elephants.

The aardvark is nocturnal and is a solitary creature that feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites; the only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber.

An aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range encompassing 10 to 30 kilometers, swinging its long nose from side to side to pick up the scent of food.

When a concentration of ants or termites is detected, the aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs, keeping its long ears upright to listen for predators, and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long, sticky tongue - as many as 50,000 in one night have been recorded.


Image Credit: Detroit ZooThis image of a new-born Aardvark, named 'Amani' (Swahili for "peace"), reminded that I've never seen one of these shy, elusive creatures in the wild.

I've seen hundreds of holes they've dug in their search for termites though; I took this pic of a freshly-dug hole in November - you can see the creature's footprints and tail-drag marks in the sand:

OneStonedCrow PicA local name for the Aardvark is "Anamanama" (Ah-nah-mah-nah-mah) and here's the kind of image I'd like to capture someday:

Image Credit: Beverly Joubert
.