Aardvark

Aardvark

This nocturnal, African Mammal with long ears and elongated snout has the honor of being the first word in the “Oxford English Dictionary”( other than the indispensable indefinite article” a” and some lexical entries like “aa”)

They are insectivorous animals which means that they eat bugs and termites. They use front claws to dig the dirt or mud, back feet to clear the earth and the tail for flattening the dirt.

Their nickname is earth pigs but they are related to elephants. If predators approach the aardvark and the aardvarks cannot go back to their burrow, they dig a hole underground to escape. They can make this hole in about 5 minutes. When Aardvarks dig holes and leave them, other non-digging animals move into these holes. Animals such as warthogs, python, etc live in these holes and these holes also protect themselves from predators.

As the Aardvarks eat termites and termites make very tall and strong mounds, it uses its strong claws to break the mound to eat the termites. They have long tounges and can grab about 100 termites in one slurp. Their tongue is up to 12 inches. They can close their nostrils to keep out dust and ants while digging. Aardvarks don’t chew their food. It gets ground up in their muscular stomachs.

Some animals like aardwolves also eat bugs like termites but cannot break into the termite mound. So they always follow aardvarks so that when they break the termite mound, the aardwolf can also enjoy a meal.

They are digitigrades which means that they walk on their toes and not on the soles of their feet. They have 4 toes on their front feet and 5 toes on their back feet. The tips of their snout are mobile. The only fruit they can eat is aardvark cucumber, in case you are wondering what the picture is about. 

They don’t make much noise unless they are frightened. Baby aardvarks are called cubs. Aardvark teeth are made into good luck charm bracelets by some African tribes.

An aardvark was the star character of a long rime running comic book. The characters name was ‘Cerebus the Aardvark’